Overview#
The CSDDD turns responsible business from a voluntary aspiration into a legal duty for large companies. They must look across their operations and value chains, find where people or the environment are being harmed, and do something about it.
Since the 2026 amendment (Directive (EU) 2026/470), it applies to EU companies with at least 5,000 employees and €1.5 billion net worldwide turnover, and to non-EU companies with more than €1.5 billion net turnover generated in the EU — thresholds raised sharply from the original 1,000 employees and €450 million.
The heart of the directive is due diligence as an ongoing process. A company maps its impacts, prevents or mitigates the worst, brings actual harms to an end, and keeps checking, rather than signing a one-off declaration.
What companies must do#
Where it sits#
The CSDDD is the broad, cross-sector version of an idea that already exists in narrower laws. The due diligence approach it codifies runs through targeted rules such as the Conflict Minerals Regulation for 3TG and the EU Deforestation Regulation for forest-risk commodities. Those laws ask for diligence on a specific problem, while the CSDDD sets a general expectation across human rights and the environment.