On 5 July, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJ).

The deadline for Member States to transpose the Directive into national law and for the European Commission to deliver its report on the potential extension of the scope of the Directive to financial services is 26 July 2026. Then, by end-July 2027 the rules will begin to apply to companies with more than 5,000 employees and 1.5 billion euro net turnover, in end-July 2028 for companies with over 3,000 employees and 900 million euro net turnover, and finally in end-July 2029 for companies over 1,000 employees and 450 million euro net turnover.

To recall, the final agreement (reached in March this year) contained a watered-down approach compared to the initial proposal. Financial services were largely carved out of the scope with only the definition of upstream activities in the value chain potentially impacting financial undertakings. As mentioned above, the Commission report in July 2026 is expected to generate a new discussion on the suitability of extending such rules to the financial sector.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact Danny O’Connell – [email protected].