Attitudes toward the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: Survey Evidence

Abstract

This study examines public attitudes toward the enforcement mechanisms of the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) across ten member states. Through a factorial survey design, we investigate how support varies across different dimensions: enforcement type (civil liability versus regulatory fines), scope (firms' own activities versus suppliers' activities), and application domains (human rights, environmental issues, climate change, consumer safety, and data privacy). Our findings reveal consistently positive support for CS3D enforcement mechanisms across all surveyed member states, with human rights violations receiving the strongest endorsement and climate-related contexts generating comparatively lower support. Additionally, respondents demonstrate greater approval for holding firms accountable for their direct actions versus those of suppliers. Our vignette study further reveals that public support varies significantly based on firms' awareness and intervention levels regarding supplier misconduct, with strongest support for sanctioning firms that knowingly fail to intervene and lowest support when firms terminate relationships with non-compliant suppliers. Notably, individuals perceiving themselves as vulnerable to climate risks show elevated support specifically for climate-related enforcement mechanisms, suggesting self-interest influences attitude formation. These findings offer empirical insights into the legitimacy of sustainability regulations and highlight potential disconnects between political controversies surrounding the CS3D and actual public sentiment, with implications for ongoing policy developments including the European Commission's recent "Omnibus Directive" proposal.

Keywords: Populus Sentiment, Democratic Deficit, International Administrative Law, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence, Human Rights Due Diligence, Sustainability, Human Rights, Climate Change, Public Support