The Anchor Defendant Mechanism in Business and Human Rights Litigation

The growing recourse to European courts in transnational Business and Human Rights (BHR) litigation has renewed attention to the anchor defendant mechanism under Article 8 (1) Brussels Ia. While the Court of Justice of the European Union has recently clarified the connectivity requirement in the competition law context, its case law does not readily transpose to BHR disputes, where parent company liability depends on an independent assessment of the parent’s conduct. Against this background, the article examines how national courts have assessed connectivity between claims against parent companies and foreign subsidiaries. It argues that connectivity increasingly operates as a preliminary filter for evaluating the plausibility of claims against parent companies, with significant implications for access to justice.