ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

Perenco S.A. is a multinational company providing oil and gas services with headquarters in Paris. It is understood to be the only oil company operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In 2019, French NGO Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France made an ex parte application to the Paris Civil Court. The purpose of this application was to obtain further information about the links between the French company Perenco S.A. and companies operating locally in the DRC. The ex parte application was made pursuant to article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure that permits, subject to there being a legitimate reason, a judge to order that investigative measures may be undertaken pre-trial.

According to reports produced by international NGOs as well as local organisations, Perenco SA is alleged to be responsible for serious environmental damage and causing harm to human health in the DRC.

Following opposition from Perenco S.A. to the Paris Civil Court’s order and denying the court’s bailiff access to its premises, Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France filed another request pursuant to article 145. This was dismissed by the court.

Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France appealed this decision from the court of first instance to the Paris Court of Appeal. The Paris Court of Appeal upheld the first instance decision. Relevant to the Court of Appeal’s decision was that the substantive claim was likely to be subject to the laws of the DRC.

The Paris Court of Appeal’s decision was subsequently appealed by Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France to the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation). The French Supreme Court ruled in Sherpa and Friends of the Earth’s favour holding that the case was to be decided according to French law (lex fori).

Following their success in the French Supreme Court, Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France (supported by the Environmental Investigation Agency) brought a claim in the Paris Civil Court in November 2022. They seek an order that Perenco S.A. remedy the environmental damage alleged to have been caused in the DRC and an order that the company take measures to prevent future environmental harm being caused. The case is ongoing.

According to Sherpa, prior to this case, article 145 had not previously been used in litigation relating to damages caused by French companies or groups of French companies abroad.