"Victory! Total Uganda case: the French Supreme Court recognizes the jurisdiction of the civil court", 15 Dec 2021

… [The French Supreme Court] issued its ruling on the case against the oil giant Total, led by six French and Ugandan civil society organizations (CSOs) – Friends of the Earth France, Survie, AFIEGO, CRED, NAPE and NAVODA. This is the first legal action based on the law on the duty of vigilance of transnational corporations. Putting an end to a nearly two years long procedural battle, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the CSOs, rejecting the jurisdiction of the commercial courts. As the violations continue and intensify in Uganda and Tanzania, the case will now return to the civil court of first instance, which will finally examine it on the merits.

After a ruling by the Nanterre civil court in January 2020, which considered that this dispute fell under the jurisdiction of the commercial court, and which was upheld in December 2020 by the Versailles Court of Appeal, Friends of the Earth France, Survie and their four Ugandan partners had decided in early 2021 to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.

For the claimants, today’s ruling by the Court of Cassation, giving jurisdiction to the civil court, is an important victory. The Court ruled in favor of the civil society organizations by recognizing the “right to choose” (‘droit d’option’) that they enjoy as non-commercial claimants. By entrusting the case to the civil court, this decision makes it possible to fulfil the objectives of the law on duty of vigilance. The purpose of this law is to hold companies liable for the impacts of their activities on third parties, such as employees of subsidiaries, suppliers and subcontractors, local communities and the environment.

Moreover, this decision is coherent with the provision recently adopted by French Parliament in a new, soon to be enacted procedural law, which gives jurisdiction to the Paris civil court for all cases based on the duty of vigilance law.