Preamble 61 to 70.
(61) Companies should monitor the implementation and effectiveness of their due diligence measures. They should carry out periodic assessments of their own operations, those of their subsidiaries and, where related to the chain of activities of the company, those of their business partners, to assess the implementation and to monitor the adequacy and effectiveness of the identification, prevention, minimisation, bringing to an end and mitigation of adverse impacts.
Such assessments should verify that adverse impacts are properly identified, due diligence measures are implemented and adverse impacts have actually been prevented or brought to an end. In order to ensure that such assessments are up-to-date, they should be carried out without undue delay after a significant change occurs, but at least every 12 months and be revised in-between if there are reasonable grounds to believe that new risks of adverse impact could have arisen.
A significant change should be understood as a change to the status quo of the company’s own operations, operations of its subsidiaries or business partners, the legal or business environment or any other substantial shift from the situation of the company or its operating context. Examples of a significant change could be cases when the company starts to operate in a new economic sector or geographical area, starts producing new products or changes the way of producing the existing products using technology with potentially higher adverse impact, or changes its corporate structure via restructuring or via mergers or acquisitions. Reasonable grounds to believe that there are new risks may arise in different ways, including learning about the adverse impact from publicly available information, through stakeholder engagement, or through notifications.
Companies should retain documentation demonstrating their compliance with this requirement for at least five years. Such documentation should at least include, where relevant, the identified impacts and in-depth assessments pursuant to Article 8, the prevention and/or corrective action plan pursuant to Articles 10(2), point (a), and 11(3), point (b), contractual provisions obtained or contracts concluded pursuant to Articles 10(2), point (b), Article 10(4) and 11(3)(c), Article 11(5), verifications pursuant to Articles 10(5) and 11(6), remediation measures, periodic assessments as part of the company’s monitoring obligation, as well as notifications and complaints. Financial undertakings should carry out periodic assessment only of their own operations, those of their subsidiaries and those of their upstream business partners.
(62) As is the case in the existing international standards set by the UN Guiding Principles and the OECD framework, it forms part of the due diligence requirement to communicate externally relevant information on due diligence policies, processes and activities conducted to identify and address actual or potential adverse impacts, including the findings and outcomes of those activities.
Directive 2013/34/EU sets out relevant reporting obligations for the companies covered by this Directive. In addition, Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council sets out further reporting obligations on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector, for financial undertakings.
In order to avoid duplicating reporting obligations, this Directive should therefore not introduce any new reporting obligations in addition to those under Directive 2013/34/EU for the companies covered by Directive 2013/34/EU as well as the reporting standards that should be developed under it.
In order to comply with their obligation of communicating as part of the due diligence under this Directive, companies should publish on their website an annual statement in at least one of the official languages of the Union, within a reasonable period of time, but no later than 12 months after the balance sheet date of the financial year for which the statement is drawn up, unless the company is subject to the sustainability reporting requirements provided for in Directive 2013/34/EU.
In cases where a company is not required to report in accordance with Article 19a or 29a of Directive 2013/34/EU, the statement should be published by the date of publication of the annual financial statements. The annual statement should be submitted to the designated collection body for the purpose of making it accessible on the European single access point (ESAP) as established by Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of the rules on accessibility of information on the ESAP, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission. To enhance legal certainty, the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 should be amended by introducing the reference to this Directive.
(63) The requirement on companies which are under the scope of this Directive and at the same time are subject to reporting requirements under Articles 19a, 29a and 40a of Directive 2013/34/EU to report on their due diligence process as stipulated in Articles 19a, 29a and 40a of Directive 2013/34/EU should be understood as a requirement for companies to describe how they carry out due diligence as provided for in this Directive.
(64) It is not the objective of this Directive to require companies to publicly disclose intellectual capital, intellectual property, know-how or the results of innovation that would qualify as trade secrets, as defined in Directive (EU) 2016/943. Reporting requirements provided for in this Directive should therefore be without prejudice to Directive (EU) 2016/943. This Directive should also apply without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
(65) In order to conduct meaningful human rights and environmental due diligence, companies should take appropriate measures to carry out effective engagement with stakeholders, for the process of carrying out the due diligence actions. Without prejudice to Directive (EU) 2016/943, effective engagement should cover providing consulted stakeholders with relevant and comprehensive information, as well as ongoing consultation that allows for genuine interaction and dialogue at the appropriate level, such as project or site level, and with appropriate periodicity.
Meaningful engagement with consulted stakeholders should take due account of barriers to engagement, ensure that stakeholders are free from retaliation and retribution, including by maintaining confidentiality and anonymity, and particular attention should be paid to the needs of vulnerable stakeholders, and to overlapping vulnerabilities and intersecting factors, including by taking into account potentially affected groupings or communities, for example those protected under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and those covered in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
There are situations in which it will not be possible to carry out meaningful engagement with consulted stakeholders, or where engagement with additional expert perspectives is useful to allow the company to comply fully with the requirements of this Directive. In such cases, companies should additionally consult with experts, such as civil society organisations or natural or legal persons defending human rights or the environment in order to gain credible insights into actual or potential adverse impacts.
The consultation of employees and their representatives should be conducted in accordance with relevant Union law, and where applicable, national law and collective agreements, and without prejudice to their applicable rights to information, consultation and participation, and in particular those covered by relevant Union legislation in the field of employment and social rights, including Council Directive 2001/86/EC and Directives 2002/14/EC and 2009/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. For the purposes of this Directive, employees should be understood as including temporary agency workers, and other workers in non-standard forms of employment provided that they fulfil the criteria for determining the status of worker established by the CJEU.
When carrying out consultations, it should be possible for companies to rely on industry initiatives to the extent that they are appropriate to support effective engagement. The use of industry or multi-stakeholder initiatives is not in itself sufficient to fulfil the obligation to consult workers and their representatives.
(66) In order to give companies tools to help them comply with their due diligence requirements through their chains of activities, the Commission, in consultation with Member States and stakeholders, should provide guidance on model contractual clauses, which can be used voluntarily by companies as a tool to help fulfil their obligations in Articles 10 and 11.
The guidance should aim to facilitate a clear allocation of tasks between contracting parties and ongoing cooperation, in a way that avoids the transfer of the obligations provided for in this Directive to a business partner and automatically rendering the contract void in case of a breach. The guidance should reflect the principle that the mere use of contractual assurances cannot, on its own, satisfy the due diligence standards provided for in this Directive.
(67) In order to provide support and practical tools to companies or to Member State authorities on how companies should fulfil their due diligence obligations in a practical manner, and to provide support to stakeholders, the Commission, using relevant international guidelines and standards as a reference, and in consultation with Member States and stakeholders, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the European Environment Agency, the European Labour Authority, and where appropriate with international organisations and other bodies having expertise in due diligence, should issue guidelines, including general guidelines and guidelines for specific sectors or specific adverse impacts and the interplay between this Directive and other Union legislative acts pursuing the same objectives and providing for more extensive or more specific obligations.
(68) Digital tools and technologies, such as those used for tracking, surveillance or tracing raw materials, goods and products throughout value chains, for instance satellites, drones, radars, or platform-based solutions, could support and reduce the cost of data gathering for value chain management, including the identification and assessment of adverse impacts, prevention and mitigation, and monitoring of the effectiveness of due diligence measures. In order to help companies fulfil their due diligence obligations along their value chain, the use of such tools and technologies should be encouraged and promoted.
To that end, the Commission should issue guidelines with useful information and references to appropriate resources. When using digital tools and technologies, companies should take into account and appropriately address possible risks associated therewith, and put in place mechanisms to verify the appropriateness of the information obtained.
(69) Although SMEs are not included in the scope of this Directive, they could be impacted by its provisions as contractors or subcontractors to the companies which are in the scope. The aim is nevertheless to mitigate financial or administrative burden on SMEs, many of which are already struggling in the context of the global economic and sanitary crisis. In order to support SMEs, Member States, with the support of the Commission, should set up and operate, either individually or jointly, dedicated user-friendly websites, portals or platforms, to provide information and support to companies, and Member States could also financially support SMEs and help them build capacity.
Such support could also be made accessible and, where necessary, adapted and extended to upstream economic operators in third countries. Companies whose business partners are SMEs are also encouraged to support them to comply with due diligence measures and use fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory and proportionate requirements vis-à-vis the SMEs.
(70) The Commission should establish a single helpdesk on corporate sustainability due diligence. That single helpdesk should be able to collaborate with and request information from relevant national authorities in each Member State, including national helpdesks where they exist, for instance to assist in tailoring the information and guidance to national contexts and its dissemination, without prejudice to the allocation of functions and powers among the authorities within national systems. The single helpdesk and relevant national authorities should also liaise with each other to ensure cross-border cooperation.
Note: This is the final text of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), published in the Official Journal of the European Union in July 2024.