Recital (49)

To better achieve the principle of subsidiarity, the specific, Union-wide liability regime currently provided for in Directive (EU) 2024/1760 should be removed. At the same time, as a matter of both international law and Union law, Member States should be required to ensure that victims of adverse impacts have effective access to justice and to guarantee their right to an effective remedy, as enshrined in Article 2(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9(3) of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Member States should therefore ensure that, where a company is held liable for a failure to comply with the due diligence requirements laid down in Directive (EU) 2024/1760, and that, where such failure caused damage, victims are able to receive full compensation. That compensation should be granted in accordance with the principles of effectiveness and equivalence. In view of the different rules and traditions that exist at national level when it comes to allowing representative actions, the specific requirement in that regard set out in Directive (EU) 2024/1760 should be deleted. Such deletion is without prejudice to any provision of the applicable national law allowing a trade union, a non-governmental human rights or environmental organisation, any other non-governmental organisation or a national human rights institution to bring actions to enforce the rights of the alleged injured party, or to support such actions brought directly by such party. Furthermore, for the same reason, the requirement for Member States to ensure that the liability rules are of overriding mandatory application in cases where the law applicable to claims to that effect is not the national law of the Member State should be deleted. Such deletion does not restrict the possibility for Member States to provide that the provisions of national law transposing Directive (EU) 2024/1760 are overriding mandatory provisions as referred to in Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council, in cases where the law applicable to claims to that effect is not the national law of a Member State.