Germany: government scales back ambitions for corporate duty of vigilance bill

In an article published on Thursday 25 June, the business daily Handelsblatt lifts the lid on the broad outlines of a bill being prepared, which would introduce a duty for companies to be vigilant when it comes to social and environmental standards in supply chains (Sorgfaltspflichtengesetz). The bill, the presentation of which has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown, is important as it is intended to serve as a model for similar future European Union legislation that Germany wants to launch during its presidency of the Council of the EU. According to the newspaper, many of the obligations that would have been imposed on companies under the version of the text that was being discussed at the beginning of the year have been scrapped.