Since the adoption of the Duty of Vigilance Law in 2017, more than a dozen lawsuits have been brought on this basis before French courts. The particularity of this law lies in the possibility for any person with legal standing to take legal action against a company in the event of a breach.
So far, only requests for preventative injunctions have led to judicial decisions. Yet, of these, only the case against La Poste has resulted in a decision on the merits. This is due to a host of preliminary objections initially raised by defendant companies, now mostly dismissed.
In a piece published in the Business and Human Rights Journal, Théa Bounfour, Senior Advocacy and Litigation Officer at Sherpa, and Lucie Chatelain, Advocacy and Litigation Manager at Sherpa, take stock of the first years of litigation under the Duty of Vigilance Law.
They argue that, despite the procedural delays, the first decisions already shed some light on questions around judges’ powers to scrutinize corporate measures. This, in turn, will have a bearing on the future of civil liability claims.
They also examine how the judicial enforcement of the Duty of Vigilance Law appears to be at a crossroads, as specialized chambers to handle such litigation have recently been established within the courts.
