Corporate sustainability due diligence postponed to July 2029

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) (external site), Directive (EU) 2024/1760, requires very large companies to identify, prevent and address adverse impacts on human rights and the environment. It covers their own operations, their subsidiaries and their chains of activities, meaning the business partners they work with.

Due diligence here is a risk-based routine: find where harm is likely, look deeper there, act on it and check the result. Directive (EU) 2026/470 narrows who is in scope and moves the start for every company to 26 July 2029 (European Commission (external site)).

The size test rises. The amended text covers EU companies with more than 5,000 employees on average and a net worldwide turnover above EUR 1.5 billion (Directive (EU) 2026/470 (external site)). Non-EU companies are covered from EUR 1.5 billion of net turnover in the EU (European Commission (external site)).

As an example, a group with 3,000 employees and EUR 2 billion of turnover was inside the 2024 scope, which reached down to 1,000 employees and EUR 450 million, and is outside the amended one (EUR-Lex summary (external site)).

The method changes too. A company first runs a scoping exercise based only on reasonably available information, then assesses in depth the areas where adverse impacts are most likely and most severe (Directive (EU) 2026/470 (external site)).

Requests for information to business partners with fewer than 5,000 employees are allowed only when the information cannot reasonably be obtained in another way (EUR-Lex (external site)).

Three further changes complete the package. The duty to adopt a climate transition plan under the directive is removed, the EU-wide civil liability regime is removed, and fines are set nationally with a cap of 3 percent of net worldwide turnover (Council of the EU (external site)).

The thresholds are the same for every sector, so banks, insurers and listed companies are in scope only when they pass both of them (European Commission (external site)).

For a Sustainable Finance Analyst, group due diligence on human rights and environmental impacts follows the narrower scope and the 2029 date. An ESG Research Analyst works with reports from fewer companies, and only for financial years from 1 January 2030 (European Commission (external site)).

The directive requires companies to integrate due diligence into their relevant policies and risk management systems. A Compliance Officer builds the scoping exercise into that system, and an Internal Auditor tests it (consolidated CSDDD (external site)).

A Regulatory Change Analyst tracks national transposition country by country, with plans re-dated to the new application date of 26 July 2029 (Council of the EU (external site)).

Directive (EU) 2026/470 was adopted on 24 February 2026, published on 26 February 2026 and entered into force on 18 March 2026 (European Commission (external site)).

The Commission is due to adopt general due diligence guidelines by 26 July 2027 (Directive (EU) 2026/470 (external site)). Member States adopt and publish national measures by 26 July 2028 (consolidated CSDDD (external site)).

National rules apply from 26 July 2029. The reporting measures under Article 16 apply to financial years starting on or after 1 January 2030 (European Commission (external site)). All these dates are set in law and confirmed.

The original directive of 2024 applied in phases from 2027, with the last group, companies with more than 1,000 employees and EUR 450 million of turnover, from 26 July 2029 (EUR-Lex summary (external site)). Member States were to transpose it by 26 July 2026 (EUR-Lex (external site)).

In April 2025, Directive (EU) 2025/794, known as the stop-the-clock directive, postponed the first application by one year (EUR-Lex (external site)). The Commission's simplification proposal of February 2025 led to a political agreement in December 2025 and to the current text (Council of the EU (external site)).