Status: Adopted

Law - European Union - Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD/CS3D) (Omnibus)

Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD/CS3D) (Omnibus)

Human Rights

Environment

Climate

Summary Table

Obligations

Reporting
Due Diligence
Other

Normative scope

Human Rights
Environment
Climate
Broad ranging

Value chain scope

Own Operations
Business partners
Chain of activities

Company scope

Large Companies
SMEs
All sectors

Administrative enforcement

Powers of Supervisory Authorities
Administrative Sanctions

Judicial enforcement

Civil Liability
Facilitating Access to Justice

Obligations

Reporting
- Companies must publish their due diligence strategy annually
- Companies not subject to the CSRD must publish an annual statement
Due Diligence
- Obligation to integrate due diligence into the company’s policy, including a code of conduct
- Obligation to identify risks and impacts along the value chain by taking into account risks factors.
- Obligation to prevent risks through prevention plans, contractual assurances, investments and SME support
- Possibility to suspend contractual relations in case of non-compliance until the impact is addressed, and as a last resort.
- Omnibus I removes the obligation to terminate a business relationship in case adverse impacts may not be mitigated or brought to an end.
- Obligation to minimize impacts through corrective plans, contractual assurances, investments and SME support
- For financial institutions, due diligence does not cover SME clients and impacts need to be identified only before providing the financial service
Other
The Omnibus I weakened the provisions on stakeholder definition and engagement:

The restricted definition of 'stakeholder' includes:
Employees, trade unions and workers’ representatives of company, subsidiaries and business partners;
Individuals or communities that are or could be directly affected by operations, services and products of company, its subsidiaries and partners (and their legitimate representatives)

Stakeholder engagement is now only limited to these steps:
Gathering information to identify, assess & prioritise adverse impacts;
Developing (enhanced) prevention and corrective action plans; and
Remediating adverse impacts.

Grievance Mechanisms: companies must set up complaints procedures for affected persons, trade unions and workers’ representatives, including human rights defenders, as well as representatives for individuals working in the value chain, and CSOs active in areas related to the company’s work. Recourse to the complaints mechanism does not prevent recourse to judicial procedures.

Normative scope

Human Rights
- The Annex includes a comprehensive list of human rights and labor rights violations, and refers to relevant UN and ILO Conventions
Environment
- The Annex covers a list of environment violations, including environmental impacts with human rights consequences
- Climate impacts are not included in the due diligence duty as such, and the Paris Agreement was not included in the normative Annex
Climate
- Omnibus I deleted all climate obligations from the CSDDD, removing the obligation to adopt and implement climate transition plans.
- Under the CSRD, companies with >1,000 employees and >€450M still have the obligation to publish information on their climate transition plans. If the companies does not have one, it must disclose if it plans to adopt one or not.
Broad ranging

Value chain scope

Own Operations
Business partners
- Due diligence obligations extend to the company's direct and indirect business partners, but only those that are in their "chain of activities"
- Companies may only request information from business partners with fewer than 5,000 employees if the information can reasonably be obtained by other means.
Chain of activities
- Activities of a company’s upstream business partners related to the design, extraction, sourcing, manufacture, transport, storage and supply of raw materials, products or parts and the development of a product or service
- Activities of a company’s downstream business partners related to the distribution, transport and storage of a product of that company, where the business partners carry out those activities for the company

Company scope

Large Companies
Covers companies with over 5.000 employees and over 1.5 billion euros net worldwide turnover
Applies to non-EU companies having generated over 1.5 billion euros net turnover in the EU in the preceding financial year
For franchise and licensing companies:
EU companies and groups: common identity and business concept, €75 million in royalties, and €275 million net worldwide turnover
Non-EU companies and groups: common identity and business concept, €75 million in royalties in the EU, and €275 million net turnover in the EU
SMEs
All sectors

Administrative enforcement

Powers of Supervisory Authorities
- Member states must designate supervisory authorities
- Supervisory authorities may initiate investigations on their own motion or following substantiated concerns submitted by natural and legal persons
- Supervisory authorities may order the cessation of infringements, abstention from repetition, remedial action and interim measures
- The European Commission will establish an European Network of Supervisory Authorities to facilitate cooperation between national authorities
Administrative Sanctions
- Supervisory authorities may impose pecuniary sanctions
- Sanctions must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive
- Aggravating and mitigating factors must be taken into account when imposing sanctions, including the nature and duration of the infringement, severity of the impact and previous efforts for mitigation
- The Omnibus I caps pecuniary sanctions at 3%, based on the company’s net wordlwide turnover. For ultimate parent companies, they should be capped at 3% of the consolidated worldwide turnover.
- Sanctions should be published
- Companies applying for public financial support may prove they have not been sanctioned for failing to comply with due diligence obligations

Judicial enforcement

Civil Liability
- Omnibus I removes harmonised liability at EU level, meaning that the conditions under which a company may be held liable will be determined by national legislation.
- Omnibus I does not affect the obligation for Member States to ensure that victims have the right to full compensation for damages resulting from breaches of CSDDD obligations.
- Liability for damages caused or jointly caused by a company to natural or legal persons and due to intentional or negligent failure to comply with due diligence obligations
- No liability for damages caused only by the company's business partners in its chain of activities (so called "directly linked to" scenario in international BHR framework)
- Participation in industry, multi-stakeholders initiatives, audits and contractual clauses does not prevent companies from being held liable.
Facilitating Access to Justice
- Access to evidence, national judges can compel companies to disclose relevant evidence required as proof in a claim brought against them
- The time limit for victim plaintiffs to bring claims in EU courts might not be less than five years
- The Omnibus I removed the possibility for NGOs, trade unions and NHRIs to represent victims in court.
- National courts may issue injunctive measures ordering to cease potentially harmful activities whilst a case is ongoing
- Member States must ensure that financial costs of proceeding are not prohibitively expensive for victim plaintiffs
- The Omnibus I removed the principle of overriding mandatory application of the CSDDD liability provisions. Member States may still reinstaure an OMP provision during transposition.

More information

Omnibus I amendments to the CSDDD were approved by the Council of the EU on February 2026 and entered into force on March 18 2026. EU Member States transpose the directive into national law until July 2028. CSDDD obligations will start applying to companies in scope as of July 2029.

Documentation

Law