The EU’s co-legislators reached a political agreement on the EU’s Forced Labour Ban Regulation on 5 March.
The future law will effectively prohibit the placing and making available on the EU market, or the export from the EU market, of any product made using forced labour, irrespective of the source. The scope of the proposal covers all economic operators and all products made available within the EU market, meaning both products made in the EU for domestic consumption and for export, as well as imported goods that are manufactured using forced labour, wholly or partly, at any stage of the supply chain. It is worth noting the regulation does not create additional due diligence obligations for economic operators.
The future law follows the International Labour Organization’s definition of forced labour (“all work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily”), but explicitly includes forced child labour.
It introduces a risk-based approach for conducting forced labour investigations, with a set of criteria put in place to assess violations of the law. Various digital infrastructures will be established, namely, the Union Network Against Forced Labour Products, the Forced Labour Single Portal, the Database of Forced Labour Risk Areas or Products and the Single Information Submission Point, to assist through different investigative phases.
Regarding the investigations as such, the European Commission will be leading the investigations where non-EU countries are involved, whereas national competent authorities will be leading in cases where there is a risk in their own territory. Importantly, economic operators would be involved and considered through the different phases of investigations.
Next Steps
The European Parliament voted on the revised deal at its last plenary of this mandate, on 23 April 2024. The Council will follow suit in May, after which the law will be published in the Official Journal of the EU. The regulation is set to apply 36 months after the entry into force, currently anticipated for mid-2027.