ESG Factors, Marketing, and Duty of Care

Professor Anne-Claire Rouaud, Ms. Lucile de La Jonquière (Director of Public Affairs, Société Générale Group), and Mr. Julien Martinet gave a presentation as part of the AEDBF.

Professor Anne-Claire Rouaud introduced the topic by revisiting the origins of sustainable finance and investments. She then discussed the main texts and the obligations they impose on companies (MiFID 2; SFDR; NFRD then CSRD; Taxonomy, CRR). Ms. Lucile de La Jonquière then highlighted the challenges in articulating these different texts and the resulting issues (problems with uncertainties regarding the calculation of the sustainability percentage of funds).

Mr. Julien Martinet subsequently explained under what conditions poor communication of the data that companies must provide under these texts can incur their liability and under what conditions. Before delving into the risk of litigation related to greenwashing.

Finally, Mr. Julien Martinet and Ms. Lucile de La Jonquière concluded the presentation by discussing the duty of care law, the related litigation, and the development of the CS3D directive (at the time in a still non-definitive version).