The French law on duty of vigilance presents the first opportunity worldwide to prevent as best as possible the important risks associated with multinationals’ activities and to grasp the complexity of their structures and value chains.

The purpose of this study is to produce a summary of the first year in which this new legislation has been implemented in France. The researchers’ general observation is that the first plans published in 2018 only very partially meet the objectives and requirements of the law, notably in terms of identifying the risk of abuse, their location, and measures put in place to prevent them. Their organisations thus wish to express here their expectations when it comes to the concerned parties, both the government and companies, in order for the implementation of this law to meet its principal objective: the prevention of violations of fundamental rights to fundamental rights and environmental damage.

In the first section, the study gives a general analysis of the vigilance plans published in order to determine the positive elements and shortfalls and to present our main observations and recommendations.

The second section presents sectoral analyses to underline the specific challenges in sectors particularly at risk: garment, food industry, arms, weapons and extractive industries. In each sector, the vigilance plans of three companies have been analysed.