Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskNo kidding. Many German businesses are only waking up to the new rules, which require those with more than 3,000 employees in Germany to monitor whether their suppliers around the world meet human-rights and environmental standards. From 2024 the law will extend to firms with 1,000 German workers. Misbehaviour by suppliers could lead to fines of up to €8m or 2% of the German firms’ global sales, whichever is higher.
In Trumpf’s case, of its 15,000 suppliers, 5,000 are deemed by the firm to be low-risk. Of the remaining 7,000, Trumpf has so far evaluated 800; assessing the rest will be a multi-year effort, says Mr Bokelmann. And that may not be the end of it. In October the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control, which is in charge of supervising implementation, sent out a 35-page questionnaire to businesses with 437 data fields, including for details not specified in the law.
Economist headline writers like “Human rights could have a chilling effect on corporate profits”