EXTRATERRITORIALITY EFFECT OF THE CSDDD ON NON-EU COMPANIES

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was adopted in June 2024 with the objective of establishing high standards of sustainable business conduct both within the EU and globally.The CSDDD imposes a duty of due diligence on companies for their operations and those of their subsidiaries and other direct or indirect business partners throughout their chains of activities.It is anticipated that the Directive will affect numerous companies doing business in the EU internal market, extending its reach to many non-EU companies and business partners, ranging from large public companies to SMEs and even natural persons.The paper examines the aims and provisions of the CSDDD, focusing on the extension of its impact on non-EU companies.It elaborates on the immediate effects and requirements for companies outside the EU that fall directly within the scope of the Directive and for those covered by its provisions as subsidiaries and business partners in chains of activities.Its main goal is to demonstrate the benefits of extraterritoriality, as well as to examine whether undesirable outcomes could be linked to the extraterritorial effect of the CSDDD.