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    CSDDDCorporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

    Definition

    Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive — the EU framework for covered companies' human-rights and environmental due diligence.

    Editorial definition: The QHSE Standard, updated 3 October 2026 · https://qhsetech.com/glossary/csddd

    Scope: Check the amended scope, national implementation and application dates; due diligence is distinct from CSRD reporting.

    Sources checked: . Examples are editorial illustrations.

    What the CSDDD requires after the 2026 amendments

    The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is Directive (EU) 2024/1760 of 13 June 2024. Article 5 requires covered companies to conduct risk-based human rights and environmental due diligence through eight actions: integrating due diligence into policies and risk management, identifying and assessing actual and potential adverse impacts, prioritising them where needed, preventing, mitigating, bringing to an end and minimising them, providing remediation, engaging with stakeholders, operating a notification mechanism and complaints procedure, monitoring effectiveness, and publicly communicating. The duties reach a company's own operations, its subsidiaries and business partners in its chains of activities, defined as upstream partners involved in producing its goods or services and downstream partners handling distribution, transport and storage for the company. Companies keep documentation of their actions for at least five years.

    Directive (EU) 2026/470, adopted on 24 February 2026 and in force from 18 March 2026, amended the CSDDD through its Article 4. Under Article 2 as amended, a company is covered if it had more than 5,000 employees on average and more than EUR 1,500,000,000 in net worldwide turnover; a non-EU company is covered above EUR 1,500,000,000 of net turnover in the Union. Member States adopt and publish their laws by 26 July 2028 and apply them from 26 July 2029, except the public annual statement under Article 16, which applies for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2030. The amendments also restructure identification into a scoping exercise based on reasonably available information followed by an in-depth assessment, limit information requests to business partners to what is necessary, delete the Directive's Article 22 on climate transition plans, delete Article 29(1) on civil liability while providing that a person harmed by a company held liable under national law has a right to full compensation, and set the maximum limit of fines at 3 per cent of net worldwide turnover. The Commission is to adopt some guidelines by 26 July 2027 and others by 26 July 2028.

    Due diligence is a process duty and differs from CSRD reporting, which describes information. Core process duties are harmonised, but Member States may keep stricter rules on other aspects, so national law matters. This page is general information, not legal advice.

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    What a CSDDD record holds in software

    • A scoping record: the operations, subsidiaries and business partners reviewed, the information used and the general areas where adverse impacts are most likely and most severe.
    • An impact register with description, actual or potential, human rights or environmental, location in the chain of activities and the in-depth assessment.
    • Prioritisation decisions with the reasons, where not all impacts can be addressed at once.
    • Prevention and corrective action plans with owner, date, evidence and effectiveness check.
    • Business partner records: code of conduct, contractual assurances, information requests and responses, and any decision to suspend or not to suspend with its reasons.
    • Complaints and notifications with the handling and outcome.
    • Monitoring reviews, stakeholder consultation and the retention date of the documents.

    CSDDD, CSRD and supply chain laws

    The CSRD requires reporting of sustainability information, while the CSDDD requires companies to run a due diligence process on adverse impacts. They overlap in data, and a company can be subject to one and not the other. The CSDDD sits beside other laws with their own due diligence duties, and a national law can keep stricter rules on aspects the Directive does not harmonise.

    A hypothetical example: a manufacturer scoping its supply base

    This case is invented to illustrate the record and describes no real company. A manufacturer with 6,000 employees and net worldwide turnover of EUR 2 billion finds that it exceeds both thresholds in the Directive, and its legal team checks the national law once it is adopted. For the scoping exercise it uses reasonably available information, such as sector reports and its own audit findings, and identifies a mineral supply chain in one region as the area where severe adverse impacts are most likely.

    For the in-depth assessment it needs information from a supplier with 400 employees. The record shows that the information could not reasonably be obtained by other means, so the request is documented as necessary. The assessment finds a likely impact, the company agrees a prevention plan with the supplier and records the contractual assurances. When the supplier does not comply, the company treats suspension as a last resort, assesses whether suspending would cause a manifestly more severe impact and records its decision with the reasons.

    Common misunderstandings about the CSDDD

    • The thresholds are no longer 1,000 employees and EUR 450 million. After the 2026 amendment a company needs more than 5,000 employees on average and more than EUR 1.5 billion in net turnover.
    • Application is not as early as older summaries say. The Directive as amended applies from 26 July 2029, with the public annual statement for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2030.
    • A smaller supplier is not outside the chain. It may receive requests, although the Directive limits requests to partners with under 5,000 employees to cases where the information cannot reasonably be obtained otherwise.
    • Joining an industry initiative or buying third-party verification does not remove liability. The Directive says such companies may still be held liable under national law.
    • Article 29(1) on civil liability was deleted, so liability and compensation depend on national law, with a right to full compensation where a company is held liable.

    How the CSDDD relates to other glossary terms

    The CSDDD sits next to the reporting law and shares data with it.

    • CSRD: the reporting directive, amended by the same 2026 Directive, which describes impacts in a statement.
    • ESG: the topic grouping within which the human rights and environmental impacts fall.
    • Materiality assessment: a reporting process that the ESRS say should be informed by an undertaking's due diligence.
    • Double materiality: the ESRS test for which impacts are reported, separate from the Directive's due diligence duties.

    Records and evidence that usually exist for the CSDDD

    • The due diligence policy and code of conduct, with consultation and update dates.
    • The scoping results and the in-depth assessments.
    • Prioritisation reasoning and approvals.
    • Action plans, contractual assurances and partner correspondence.
    • Complaints and notification logs with outcomes.
    • Monitoring reviews and the annual statement, retained for the required period.

    What a software tool needs to capture for the CSDDD

    • A scoping and impact register that tracks chain of activities, location and severity with reasoning.
    • Business partner records with the information requested, why it was necessary and what came back.
    • Action plans with owners, dates, evidence and an effectiveness check.
    • A decision log for suspension and non-suspension with the reasons.
    • A complaints and notification workflow with outcomes.
    • Retention rules that keep documents for at least five years.
    • A versioned reference to the national law and dates in force.

    Catalog profiles documenting supply chain due diligence

    Each profile documents a supplier due diligence capability in its record. The list does not show that a product meets the CSDDD or any national law.

    Same rule for every product: tagged “Supplier Due Diligence”, “Supplier Sustainability”, “Supplier Evaluation”, “Supplier Management” or “Supplier Data”, with a sourced supplier due-diligence or risk capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

    Tekmon pays for a sponsored placement (above); its place in this list follows the same rule as every entry. How lists are ordered

    All 10 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.

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    Frequently asked questions

    Who is covered after the 2026 amendment?

    EU companies with more than 5,000 employees on average and more than EUR 1.5 billion in net worldwide turnover, non-EU companies with more than EUR 1.5 billion of net turnover in the Union, and the franchising and licensing cases the Directive sets out. National transposition decides the details.

    When does it apply?

    Member States must adopt and publish their laws by 26 July 2028 and apply them from 26 July 2029. The public annual statement under Article 16 applies for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2030.

    Does the CSDDD require a climate transition plan?

    Directive (EU) 2026/470 deleted Article 22 of the CSDDD, which dealt with transition plans. The CSRD may still call for climate information under the ESRS, so check that regime separately.

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