header-logo header-logo

Reforms for deforestation-free supply chains

12 December 2022
Issue: 8007 / Categories: Legal News , EU , Environment , Climate change litigation , Regulatory
printer mail-detail
Lawyers are advising businesses to start preparing for regulatory reforms on deforestation-free supply chains.

Last week, the European Parliament and the EU Council of the EU reached a provisional agreement on a regulation on deforestation-free supply chains. Under its terms, companies must issue due diligence statements that source materials were produced on land not subject to deforestation since 31 December 2020 and comply with legislation relating to human rights, including the rights of indigenous people. The source materials affected include palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, timber and rubber, as well as derived products such as chocolate, beef, leather and furniture.

Companies will not be able to sell products within the EU without this statement. Penalties for non-compliance will be a maximum of 4% of the total annual turnover in each member state.

Companies will also be required to collect precise geographical information on the farmland where the commodities that they source have been grown, so that they can be checked for compliance.

The European Commission will run a benchmarking system that will assess countries or areas and their level of risk. Obligations for companies will depend on the level of risk.

The regulation must now be formally adopted before it can come into force, after which operators and traders will be given 18 months to adjust. Micro and small traders will be given a longer adaptation period.

Solicitors at Osborne Clarke commented in an update that ‘even though this regulation will not come into force for at least 18 months, businesses should consider the source of their products now, and think through the systems that will need to be put in place to produce or obtain the due diligence statement.

‘In the UK, the Environment Act 2021 will place a similar duty on businesses to have a due diligence system in place and to report annually on forest-risk commodities’.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll