What France Duty of Vigilance Law 2017 (Loi No. 2017-399 relative au devoir de vigilance des sociétés mères et des entreprises donneuses d'ordre) requires
The Duty of Vigilance Law (Loi No. 2017-399 of 27 March 2017 on the Duty of Vigilance of Parent Companies and Instructing Entities) makes France the first country in the world to legally mandate corporate supply chain human rights and environmental due diligence, predating the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) by seven years. The law is codified at Articles L.225-102-4 and L.225-102-5 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) and at Articles L.22-10-36 and L.22-10-37 following the PACTE Law reform of 2019. The law applies to sociétés anonymes (SAs) incorporated under French law that, at the close of two consecutive fiscal years, employ either: at least 5,000 employees in France (within the company and its French and foreign direct and indirect subsidiaries), or at least 10,000 employees worldwide (within the company and all of its direct and indirect subsidiaries globally). The fundamental obligation is the annual publication of a plan de vigilance (vigilance plan) that must include: first, a risk mapping identifying, analysing, and ranking the risks to human rights, fundamental freedoms, the health and safety of persons, and the environment that may result from the company's activities and those of the companies it controls, its subcontractors, and its suppliers with which it has an established commercial relationship; second, procedures for the regular assessment of the situation of subsidiaries, subcontractors, and suppliers with which the company has an established commercial relationship, based on the risk mapping; third, appropriate actions to mitigate risks and prevent serious violations; fourth, an alert and collection mechanism to report the existence or realisation of risks, established in conjunction with the trade union representatives of the company; and fifth, a system for monitoring the actions and measures implemented and for evaluating their effectiveness. The vigilance plan must be included in the company's annual management report or a dedicated document published on the company's website and must be prepared in consultation with stakeholders including trade unions. Enforcement: any interested person (including NGOs and trade unions) may give the company formal notice to comply with its obligations; if the company fails to comply within three months, the interested person may refer the matter to a civil court, which may order the company to comply under penalty payment (astreinte). Companies may also be held liable in civil damages under general tort law (Article 1240 Code civil) where a failure to establish or implement the vigilance plan causes damage that a properly implemented plan could have prevented. Several landmark cases have been initiated against Total Energies (climate and human rights in Uganda), EDF (Carmichael coal mine, Australia), TotalEnergies SA (Mozambique LNG), Yves Rocher, Teleperformance, and others. The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive 2024/1760 (CSDDD), which France must transpose by 26 July 2026, extends similar obligations to EU companies meeting turnover and employee thresholds and adds a civil liability regime harmonised at EU level.
Pillar: Sustainability & ESG · Authority: Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances (Ministry of Economy and Finance); Direction des Affaires Civiles et du Sceau (Ministry of Justice); civil courts (Tribunaux Judiciaires) · Version: 1.0.1 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/JORFTEXT000034290626
SHA-256 integrity: 2ab252649f2f9f326cfdc45dac8277930fd4bcc25f57e38568901c4eb65e4ff7
Primary Citations — 7 traced to source
- Loi No. 2017-399 du 27 mars 2017 relative au devoir de vigilance des sociétés mères et des entreprises donneuses d'ordre (France) - Article L.225-102-4 Code de commerce: SAs with 5,000+ employees in France or 10,000+ worldwide must publish an annual vigilance plan covering human rights, health and safety, and environmental risks across their supply chains
- Loi No. 2017-399 (France) - Article L.225-102-4, I: the vigilance plan must contain five elements: risk mapping; regular assessment procedures for subsidiaries and suppliers; appropriate risk prevention actions; alert and collection mechanism with trade unions; and effectiveness monitoring system
+ 5 more citations (full bibliography, deterministic workflow, actionable schema and crosswalks) included in the vault unlock — $0.01 via Skyfire / L402 / Direct Base USDC.
Access
- Discovery (free): /api/v1/nodes/fr-loi-devoir-de-vigilance-2017.json — 6-field metadata
- Vault (full node): /api/v1/vault/nodes/fr-loi-devoir-de-vigilance-2017.json — full 13-key payload, $0.01 USDC (L402/Skyfire/Direct Base)
- Canonical URL: https://bidda.com/intelligence/fr-loi-devoir-de-vigilance-2017
- Back to registry: Browse all 10,099 compliance nodes