Germany’s parliament on Friday passed a supply chain act, paving the way for stricter regulation that will force large companies to pay fines of up to 2% of their annual global turnover if they violate the rules.
Under the act, companies in Germany above a certain size must establish due diligence procedures that prevent human rights and environmental abuses within their global supply chains and take action if they find violations at their foreign suppliers.
From 2023, only companies with more than 3,000 employees in Germany will be affected. From 2024, this expands to companies with more than 1,000 employees.
This means that in the first stage more than 900 companies would be affected, and in the second stage around 4,800.
