Criminal liability risks of company officials as a result of the introduction of the German Supply Chain Compliance Act - Criminial Compliance for sustainable transnational business practices

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Till Zimmermann
• Subject Area: Criminal Law
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501891865

The project is about the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz - LkSG), which came into force in 2023. This obliges large companies to pay attention to human rights or environmental risks within their own transnational supply chain and to minimize these risks by influencing their foreign contractual partners. The LkSG provides for fines to be imposed on companies that fail to comply with these so-called due diligence obligations. The subject of the research project is firstly the question of whether the LkSG also gives rise to individual criminal liability risks for the responsible functionaries in companies, in particular with regard to the negligent commission of environmental offenses or offenses against life and limb through omission. According to the research results to date, the answer to this question is clearly in the affirmative. Secondly, there is the practical question of how the new law should be handled in order to realistically promote the human rights concerns of the LkSG and at the same time limit the risks of criminal liability to a level that is justifiable in terms of the rule of law and the economy. Specific compliance recommendations are also formulated for this purpose. In December 2023, the European legislator agreed to adopt a directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, CSDDD). The CSDDD pursues the same objective as the LkSG, but goes beyond it in some respects. Among other things, the due diligence obligations will in future no longer only relate to the so-called supply chain (i.e. the origin of goods), but also to the further sales chain (i.e. the further use of a product through to ist disposal). The national legislator will have to implement these extensions in the LkSG in the near future. The aim of the project continuation is to adapt the previous research results on the LkSG with regard to the tightening of the law by the CSDDD and to adapt the already developed compliance recommendations for action to the new legal situation. This is also intended to prevent the research results obtained to date from becoming de facto worthless as a result of legislative overhaul.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants