The EU Supply Chain Act – scaling back on European human rights protection?
In 2024, the EU adopted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (Directive EU 2024/1760). It requires companies above a certain size that operate within and work with the EU to comply with human rights and environmental due diligence obligations throughout their production processes. This means, for example, ensuring that their goods do not contain any components produced using child or forced labour. Human rights activists embraced the law, but business associations criticised it as bureaucratic and costly. As early as 2025, when business-friendly parties held a majority in the European Parliament, the act was ‘defused’: it now applies only to large companies with 5,000 or more employees; these companies no longer have to monitor their entire supply chain, but only those areas where they themselves identify a significant risk. Furthermore, the liability rules have been scaled back.
Discuss whether the European Union has violated its own set of values with this decision!