De Gaulle Fleurance presents the sixth edition of its Observatory of Societal Transitions, produced in collaboration with HEC Paris and financial consulting firm Accuracy. This Observatory offers a cross-analysis of the major issues that are currently redefining corporate priorities: the decline of CSR regulations and climate litigation, the development of generative AI and its economic, social, and legal impact.

Key figures from the Observatory

• The European Commission proposes to limit the scope of the CSRD directive on non-financial reporting to companies with more than 1,000 employees (compared to 250 previously); with the Parliament even hoping to raise this threshold to 1,500 employees. In concrete terms, this would exclude 80% to 92% of the entities initially concerned from the scope of application. It also plans to reduce the number of indicators to be published in sustainability reports by nearly 70%;
• 2,967 climate-related proceedings initiated in 2024 in around 60 countries, representing a slight slowdown in growth (Grantham Institute report); around 1 in 5 cases targets a private company;
• Two legal actions based on the duty of care brought in France in 2025;
• To combat greenwashing in France, the DGCCRF carried out more than 3,000 inspections of companies between 2023 and 2024, resulting in more than 400 compliance orders, 70 administrative fines, and more than 500 warnings; according to the DGCCRF, one-third of operators inspected were found to be involved in greenwashing in 2024, compared to 25% in 2022;
• To regulate the massive growth of AI, a European regulation, which came into force in August 2024, foresees severe penalties of up to 6% of global turnover in the event of non-compliance with obligations (third-party compliance, documentation, explainability, etc.);
• 27% more loans granted on platforms using AI to assess borrower creditworthiness, at lower rates (-16%) for comparable risk, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, illustrating the effectiveness and positive impact of this technology;
• According to the International Energy Agency, global data center consumption could rise from 460 TWh in 2022 to over 1,000 TWh in 2026, highlighting a major environmental challenge that needs to be addressed.

The Omnibus Directive: a turning point for European sustainability

The draft Omnibus Directive, which amends the CSRD, refocuses non-financial reporting requirements solely on large companies with more than 1,000 employees (the Parliament even hoping to raise this threshold to 1,500 employees), reducing the initial scope of the CSRD Directive (which had set a threshold of 250 employees) by 80% to 92%. Soft law will need to regain ground and allow smaller companies to distinguish themselves by developing their CSR strategy on a voluntary basis.

In order to preserve the competitiveness of European companies, Brian Hill, Academic Director of the Center for an Inclusive Economy at HEC Paris, envisions the implementation of voluntary but incentivized reporting, focused on products rather than companies, making it easier to regulate its use while ensuring its scope across the entire European market, including for products manufactured by non-European companies.

Climate litigation: towards a global judicialization of the transition

The nearly 3,000 climate-related proceedings initiatied in 2024 are becoming a key battleground between transition strategies and strategies to preserve the status quo. This trend has been gaining momentum since Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States and the European Union’s proposed Omnibus Directive. The difficulty for companies lies in the fragmentation and constant evolution of the regulatory framework, which requires a high degree of adaptability.

Another trend observed is that the number of actions based on the duty of care continues to decline in France, with two summonses filed in 2025. However, “in recent years, there has been a marked increase in actions against companies and their corporate officers, particularly relating to allegations of human rights violations, with these actions having a criminal law component,” warns Pierrick Le Goff, partner at De Gaulle Fleurance, who points out that in the first half of 2024 alone, 13 such proceedings had already been launched in France (Club des Juristes report).

Greenwashing: increased legal and reputational risk

While the European Green Deal is being undermined by the Omnibus Directive, greenwashing is giving rise to increased vigilance on the part of the authorities in France and is becoming a systemic risk for companies, with a third of them affected by issues of false environmental or social claims, according to the DGCCRF. Greenwashing exposes them to financial penalties and a loss of trust from stakeholders: investors, consumers, partners, employees, and local communities.

Artificial Intelligence: the transformation of business models

Another major concern for businesses is that artificial intelligence does not simply automate or accelerate certain processes. It profoundly reconfigures business models and raises fundamental societal questions. Whereas the internet has digitized the entire economy and social relations, AI operates at an even deeper level. It affects the very way decisions are made, value is created, and revenue is captured.

Three major changes are emerging:

• The disintermediation of certain markets, particularly in finance (for example, for granting loans);
• The emergence of new monetizable products (in the automotive industry, where cars are becoming software platforms that customers can subscribe to);
• Extreme personalization of prices and journeys, paving the way for dynamic revenue models (in tourism and transportation, where prices change according to demand).

But these gains in agility raise major ethical questions. At what point does personalization become discrimination? Can we set a price or adjust a risk based on behavioral data? What role does informed consent play in data collection, whether it be intellectual property or individual data? How should authors who feed AI be compensated? And who is responsible when a decision is made by an algorithm?

The rise of generative AI further reinforces these challenges. It no longer merely assists humans, it produces, recommends, and sometimes convinces. The line between tool and actor is becoming blurred. As a result, the debate is no longer just technological, but societal and legal: what rules do we want to set for these systems? What role should human supervision play? And what does responsibility still mean in a world where we no longer always understand how decisions are made?

The challenges posed by this revolution, compounded by massive energy and resource consumption and discriminatory biases, are forcing us to come up with new solutions. There is growing awareness of ethical and compliance issues, with very heavy penalties (up to 6% of global turnover, according to the European AI Act of 2024).