As part of the European Union (EU)’s European Green Deal, one of the areas of EU law that has developed most rapidly and profoundly is that relating to corporate sustainability governance. Most recently, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“CS3D”), has been provisionally agreed at a political level in December 2023, and confirmed by COREPER in a revised version in March 2024. The final text of the CS3D must still be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers before it enters into force.
On March 6, 2024, the US Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules (“Final Rules”) that enhance and standardize the disclosure of climate-related information in registration statements and Exchange Act reports. The Final Rules were scaled back after years of significant feedback from registrants and other stakeholders, with the Commission receiving more than 24,000 comment letters in response to the initial rule proposal in March 2022.
On 9 February 2024, the Minas Gerais State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainable Development (SEMAD in Portuguese) published Copam Normative Decision No. 249/2024, which defined the guidelines for implementing, operating and monitoring the take-back requirement systems in the state.
In the last few days, the Superintendence of Companies ( “SoC”) has begun to invite various companies under its surveillance and control to participate, on a voluntary basis, in a diagnostic exercise on the implementation of sustainable practices. This is in accordance with Chapter XV of the Basic Legal Circular of the SoC: “Administrative Recommendations for the Submission of the Sustainability Report”.
After long and tough discussions, EU ambassadors adopted a new compromise proposal on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in Brussels on 15 March 2024. Now the measures are likely to pass into law. The next step is for the Parliament to give its approval.
Greenwashing refers to the practice of making exaggerated, misleading or unsubstantiated claims in relation to the sustainability credentials of financial products and services. The risk of greenwashing claims has risen significantly in recent years, in tandem with investor demand for more sustainable investment products. This has been evidenced not only by well-publicized enforcement action both in Europe and the UK, but also by a flurry of recent claims by NGOs against financial institutions.
On 7 March 2024, the Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Gina Cass-Gottlieb, announced the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement priorities for 2024/25 and the market studies and advocacy work that the ACCC would continue this year.
Ms. Cass-Gottlieb identified a range of industry sectors, as well as specific competition and consumer law issues that will be the focus of the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement activities for 2024/25. Many of these areas continue from last year.
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“CS3D”) was provisionally agreed at a political level in December 2023, and confirmed by COREPER in a revised version in March 2024. Once formally approved, this new law will have significant impacts on many EU companies and non-EU companies active in the EU, as well as on their value chains throughout the world. In this first installment of our new “CS3D Explainer Series”, we answer the following four key questions: “Which companies are covered?,” “What will be their new obligations?,” “Why should they comply?” and “When will this start to apply?”
Our popular Annual Compliance Conference, which attracts over 4,000 in-house senior legal and compliance professionals every year from across the world, will be taking place from 30 April – 6 June. We will be delivering our cutting-edge insights and guidance virtually on key global compliance, investigations and ethics trends.
A dismissal will be automatically unfair if the sole or principal reason for dismissal is that the employee took or sought to take parental leave. In Hilton Foods Solutions v. Wright, the EAT has decided that this protection does not require the employee to have made a formal request. Communications about taking parental leave might reach a stage that could be described as having sought to take the leave. This will be a question of fact for employment tribunals.