8. Additional Resources and examples
Examples of specific instances cases examined by the various NCPs
| NCP | Parties | Allegation(s) | Basis | Filing Date | Host Country | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Netherlands NCP |
NGOs:
Oxfam Novib, GreenPeace Netherlands, Banktrack, Friends of the Earth Netherlands
Company:
|
- Failure to report on its indirect greenhouse gas emissions via global companies and projects it finances. - Failure to set targets to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses resulting from its financial products. |
III. Disclosure
VI. Environment VIII. Consumer Interests |
May 2017 | Netherlands |
- NCP’s final statement issued in April 2019 made clear that the OECD Guidelines expect banks to set concrete climate goals for their financial services in line with the Paris Agreement.
- Dialogue helped the parties reach an agreement on several points: ING’s adoption of particular methodologies to measure, set targets and steer bank’s climate impact; ING’s commitment to reduce its thermal coal exposure to close to zero by 2025 and refrain from financing new coal-fired power plants; and a joint call from ING and the NGOs to the Dutch Government to request the International Energy Agency to develop two models limiting global warming to ⅕ degrees. - First NCP to take a clear affirmative position on the OECD Guidelines’ expectations for business around climate change. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/dutch-ngos-vs-ing-bank/ |
|
Polish NCP |
NGOs Foundation Development YES- Open-Pit Mines NO (RT-ON)
Company:
|
- Failure to submit complete non-financial reporting on the environmental impacts of its activities and services. |
II. General Policies IV.Human Rights
V. Employment VIII. Consumer Interest |
August 2018 | Poland |
- Ground-breaking case that also addressed OECD Guidelines’ expectations for climate-related reporting and targeting of financial institutions.
- Reached an Agreement in April 2019 for PZU to include in its non-financial reporting the majority of the climate and environment impact elements that RTO-ON has sought. PZU also agreed to implement policies on respecting human rights and the environment. - Polish NCP committed to follow-up in 12 months’s time to assess PZU’s progress. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/development-yes-open-pit-mines-no-vs-group-pzu-s-a/ |
| Swiss NCP |
NGO:
- Society for Threatened Peoples
Company:
|
- Breach of Guidelines by remaining engaged with clients involved in the North Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) despite being informed of the adverse human rights impacts.
- Failure to carry out due diligence and encourage its investors to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts. |
II. General Policies
IV. Human Rights VI. Environment |
April 2017 | United States |
- The Swiss NCP appointed an external mediator who held 5 mediation sessions focussing on how Credit Suisse could operationalise its commitment to ensure FPIC of indigenous people.
- Parties reached an agreement in October 2017, under which Credit Suisse promised to require its project financing clients in the oil & gas, mining and forestry & agribusiness sectors to incorporate Finance Corporation’s Performance Standard 7 on Indigenous Peoples 7 on Indigenous peoples (which includes the principle of Free, informed and prior consent). - The Society for threatened people was disappointed that the bank limited the scope of the requirement only to project financing and urged the bank to take clear action when clients fail to ensure FPIC. - The NGO and NCP committed to follow up on the implementation of the agreement. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/society-for-threatened-peoples-vs-credit-suisse/ |
|
Italian NCP |
NGO:
Egbema Voice of Freedom (EVF) supported by Chima Williams & Associates (CWA), NGOs Advocates for Community Alternatives (ACA) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
Company:
|
- Breach of the OECD Guidelines due to the annual flooding in the Aggah village, as a result of the elevated roadways and embankments Eni S.p.A built to drill for oil. |
IV. Human Rights | December 2017 | Nigeria |
- The complainants filed a complaint to the Italian and Dutch NCPs regarding Eni S.p.A. and its Dutch subsidiary Eni International BV.
-The Italian NCP accepted the complaint on 26 July 2018 and opened a mediation procedure between the parties in the presence of a third-party Conciliator. - An agreement was reached in July 2019. The terms of the settlement provide for the urgent construction of new culverts/drainage channels and maintenance and management of the existing channels to avoid flooding. It also calls for the impact of those measures to be verified in the presence of a technical expert, to determine whether further action should be taken - Eni has conducted engineering surveys to design a new drainage system through Aggah, but work is suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis. See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/egbema-voice-of-freedom-et-al-vs-eni/ |
|
Polish NCP |
NGOs:
FranK Bold Foundation
Company:
|
- Failure to conduct due diligence to identify and seek to prevent the environmental impacts of the furnaces sold on its online platform.
- Company alleged to be directly linked to the environmental harm through its business relationship with the portal’s users that sell or buy the furnaces. |
II. General Policies
VI. Environnent VIII. Consumer Interest |
April 2018 | Poland |
- First case to address the responsibility of an online Marketplace company for due diligence over goods sold through its platform.
- Following independent negotiations, the parties reached an agreement in May 2018. Grupa OLX agreed to accept Frank Bold Foundation’s help to improve its environmental policies, improve screening of environmentally harmful advertisements and prioritise addressing illegal advertisements alerted to them by the foundation. - NCP said it would follow up in April 2020 the foundation’s monitoring of Grupa OLX by asking both parties to submit information on their cooperation. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/frank-bold-vs-grupa-olx-sp-z-o-o/ |
| Swiss NCP |
NGOs:
Transformation For Justice (TUK Indonesia)
Company:
|
- Failure to address complaints by villagers in West Kalimantan, Indonesia over a land dispute with palm oil giant Sime Darby (member of RSPO). |
IV. Human Rights |
January 2018 | Indonesia |
- Through mediation, the parties agreed on clarifying the legal review of the pending issues as part of the RSPO complaint. They agreed on several issues regarding the payment of legal review, standards and timeline of the review and opportunities for TUK and Sime Darby to give their input.
- Parties agreed to send an update to the NCP within six months. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/tuk-indonesia-vs-roundtable-on-sustainable-palm-oil-(rspo/ |
| Dutch NCP |
Former Employee
Company: Heineken and its subsidiary Bralima |
- Bralima caused massive, unfair and unlawful retrenchment of employees in Democratic Republic of Congo from 1999-2003. And failed to pay a final settlement for some workers.
- Heineken which was closely collaborating with Bralima must have known and should have used its influence to prevent further damage. |
I. Concepts
II. General Policies IV. Human Rights VI. Environment |
December 2015 | Democratic Republic of Congo |
- Dutch NCP lead mediation meetings in Paris and Uganda. The parties reached an agreement in August 2017, but the parties wished to keep the content of the agreement confidential. However, news reports published the same day confirmed that Heineken voluntarily compensated the former workers more than 1 million euros.
- Heinekein also promised to set up a new due diligence protocol for activities operating in conflict areas. - This is one of the only OECD Guideline Cases that have achieved compensation for complainants. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/former-employees-vs-heineken/ |
| Australian NCP |
NGO:
Inclusive Development International Equitable Cambodia
Company:
|
- Complaint was filed on behalf of 681 families who have been forcibly displaced by Phnom Penh Sugar&Co (PPS). In addition to forced evictions, military-backed land seizures and destruction of crops and property, PPS also allegedly participated in arbitrary arrests and intimidation of villagers. Ultimately it undertakes dangerous working conditions including widespread child labour. This situation was reported extensively in the media prior to the issue of the loan. - ANZ failure to conduct due diligence that would have refuted the loan to PPS, and therefore ANZ contributed to the adverse impacts. |
II. General Policies
IV. Human Rights |
October 2014 | Cambodia |
- Parties came to an agreement in February 2020 following years of complex mediation. The details of the agreement are confidential but they include a contribution from ANZ of the gross profit it earned from the loan to help the affected communities. And a commitment to ensure a specific grievance mechanism available. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/ec-and-idi-vs-australia-and-new-zealand-banking-group/ |
| Italian NCP |
NGO:
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Justice for Iran (JFI) and Redress Company: Italtel Group S.p.A |
- The complaint alleged that the advanced technologies and services offered by Italtel to Telecommunications Company of Iran (“TCI”), as part of its Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”), would risk contributing to Internet censorship and suppression of a wide range of fundamental freedoms and human rights in Iran.
- The agreement, they further argued, would also empower and equip Iranian authorities including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”) in further crushing political dissent and civil liberties throughout the country and in cyberspace. |
II. General Policies
III. Disclosure IV. Human Rights |
September 2017 | Iran |
- The Italian NCP rejected the complaint on 21 May 2018 on grounds that the issue at hand was not material or sufficiently substantiated to warrant further consideration, since the information submitted by Italtel showed the project was of a narrower scope than that initially announced and that Italtel had taken adequate steps to disable interception of the telecommunication data. Moreover, the MoU was yet to be finalized as a contract, suggesting “that the current business relationship cannot be assessed as an actual or potential breach of the guidelines.” - The complainants believe the Italian NCP made the admissibility criteria into an unreasonably high threshold barring dialogue and that it misinterpreted “business relationship” as conceived under the Guidelines, for it is not necessary that Italtel enter into a binding contract or operational phase for a business relationship to exist and for the NCP to accept the case See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/fidh-jfi-and-redress-vs-italtel/ |
| German NCP |
NGO:
European Center for Constitutional Human Rights et al. Company: TUV Rheinland AG and its subsidiary TUV Rheinland India PVT. Ltd. |
- Carried out an inadequate social audit of Phantom, an apparel factory in Rana Plaza Building. Audit failed to report serious labour rights violations at Phantom including child labour, sex discriminations, forced overtime and declared the building’s construction good quality. |
II General Policies
IV. Human Rights VI. Environment |
May 2016 | India |
- Parties engaged in an intensive dialogue but did not reach an agreement, notably because TUV Rheinland abruptly broke off the conversation considering the draft text was not sufficiently balanced towards their views despite compromises made by ECCHR et al.
- No compensation or improved situation for the complainants. - German NCP recommended a multi stakeholder dialogue to address the key challenges with social audits. Notably the possible conflicts of interest of factories paying auditors and the need for more transparency. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/ecchr-et-al-vs-tuv-rheinland-ag/ |
| United Kingdom NCP |
NGOs:
Client Earth
Company:
|
- Complete alleges BP misled the public in its advertising campaign “Keep Advancing” and “Possibilities everywhere”. The advertisement focused on BP’s low carbon energy products when more than 96% of BP’s annual spent is on fossil fuels. | VIII. Consumer Interest | December 2019 | United Kingdom |
United Kingdom NCP has assessed the complaint as being material and substantiated, despite the complaint not proceeding because BP decided to end its greenwashing advertisement in February 2020. OECD Watch claims that this case sets a precedent to use the OECD Guidelines to hold companies accountable for their greenwashing on the basis of consumer interests. See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/clientearth-vs-bp/ |
| Belgian and Luxembourg NCP |
NGO:
Open Secrets and Center of Applied Legal Studies
Company:
|
- Complaint alleges the bank in the 1970s-1980s facilitated a series of clandestine Financial transactions to sell arms to Armscor, the state-owned arms procurement of the then apartheid government of South Africa, violating the UN Security Council arms embargo. |
II. General Policies
III. Disclosure |
April 2018 | South Africa |
- June 2018 Open Secret and CAL alert Belgian and Luxembourg authorities of a perceived conflict of interests within the Belgian NCP: several senior KBC executives hold influential positions within the Federation of Entreprises (a key actor in the tripartite structure of the NCP). The complainants thus asked for a recusal of the conflicted parties which was rejected by the NCP. - Despite the involvement of the OECD Secretary-General and the Investment committee, in June 2019 the Belgian NCP rejected the case against KBC, asserting that seeking a public apology by KBC, taking punitive action against them falls outside their scope and competence. - Luxembourg NCP asserted that the investigation of complicated facts of so long ago does not fit the mandate of the NCP but would rather require investigation by the Attorney General. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/open-secrets-cals-vs-kbc-group/ |
| Peruvian NCP |
Quechua indigenous groups
Company:
|
- Complaint alleges Marriott International and its wholly owned subsidiary had destroyed an ancient Inca Temple, exhumed human remains from an attached symmetry and conducted unauthorized evacuations in an archaeological site in order to build a hotel. |
II. General Policies.
IV. Human Rights. VII. Combating bribery, bribe solicitations and extortion. |
December 2018 | Peru |
- Peruvian Ministry of Culture had already issued a stop order against the project which was causing “serious harm to archeological sites which was registered as part of Cultural Heritage of the nation and Humanity”.
- Alleged conflict of interest. The hotel exploration began under an investment promotion agreement signed between Proinversion (agency that also fulfills the NCP role) and the developer in 2014. - In October 2019 Peruvian NCP rejected the complaint because of lack of substantiation, the existence of parallel proceedings and failure to establish a link with the company, thus ignoring Mariott’s due diligence requirements. - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/quechua-indigenous-group-vs-marriott-international/ |
| Dutch NCP |
NGOs Fivas/Association for International Water Studies, the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive and Hasankeyf Matters Company Bresser |
Bresser’s subsidiary, Bresser Eurasia, had been hired by Turkey’s State Hydraulics Works to relocate the Zeynel Bey Tomb in Hasankeyf, Turkey. The complainants alleged that Bresser had failed to undertake meaningful consultation with the local population as part of its due diligence process, and that the relocation and encasement of the tomb violated their cultural rights and degraded the tomb’s value as a cultural heritage |
II. General Policies IV. Human Rights |
July 2017 | Turkey |
- The Dutch NCP issued its initial assessment accepting it, and mediation was ensued. However, no agreement was reached, and the NCP moved ahead to issue a final statement.
- The NCP confirmed that even though Bresser is a smaller enterprise, the size of an enterprise does not affect its responsibility to conduct due diligence - The NCP also noted that this is the first specific instance filed on the subject of cultural rights as human rights and concluded that the right to culture and/or the right to cultural heritage and its conservation should be considered a human right under the OECD Guidelines - The statement determined that Bresser had not fully satisfied the due diligence criteria of the OECD Guidelines and it offered numerous recommendations to help Bresser bring its activities into compliance with the Guidelines See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/fivas-et-al-vs-bresser/ |
| Dutch NCP |
NGO:
FEDIQUEP, FECONACOR, OPIKAFPE and ACODECOSPAT, upported by co-complainants Peru EQUIDAD, SOMO, Oxfam in Peru, and Oxfam Novib Company: Pluspetrol Resources Corporation B.V. (Pluspetrol) |
- The company has failed to conduct adequate due diligence to prevent adverse environmental and human rights impacts from its oil extraction operations in the Amazon rainforest and to remediate adverse impacts it caused and contributed to.
- The company has also breached the OECD Guidelines provisions on taxation, since the company has Dutch headquarters, but has set up numerous tax constructions that enable it to avoid taxes by operating through other jurisdictions, including those of Luxembourg and the Bahamas |
Chapter II General Policies Chapter III Disclosure Chapter IV Human Rights Chapter XI Taxation |
11 March 2020 | Peru |
- On the 20th of April 2021, the Dutch NCP officially accepted the case against Pluspetrol for further examination, and offered its good offices to the parties in accordance with the Dutch NCP Specific Instance Procedure
- It is the first time an NCP has accepted a complaint against a letterbox company. - It is the first time the Dutch National Contact Point for the OECD accept a complaint that also addresses also the use of the Dutch system for avoiding taxes. - The NCP asked both parties whether they were willing to engage in a mediation process, with the aim of agreeing how the issues can be successfully addressed. As of April 2021, the notifying parties have accepted NCP’s good offices, but the enterprise has rejected them. As a result, the Dutch OECD contact point will investigate the company’s behaviour on its own and issue a public statement on whether Pluspetrol acted in accordance with the Guidelines - See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/peruvian-indigenous-federations-et-al-vs-pluspetrol/ |
| Turkish NCP |
NGO:
- Association Lumière Synergie Développement; Association of Women Fish Processors of Bargny Guedj Company: Tosyali Holding Ltd |
The company has breached OECD Guidelines provisions on human rights and environment through its plans to build a mining and steel complex on lands currently used by women fish processors at the Khelcom site in Senegal.
The company did not undertake an adequate human rights due diligence process to assess the risks that its operations will pose, including specifically to the women fish processors. The company failed to carry out an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, submit a resettlement plan, and consult with the impacted community. |
Chapter II General Policies
Chapter IV Human Rights Chapter VI Environment |
28 August 2020 | Senegal |
As of May 2021, the Turkish NCP has not accepted the complaint yet or issued an initial assessment. This complaint is an example of the recent uptick in complaints highlighting impacts to women in communities See more details: https://www.oecdwatch.org/complaint/lsd-et-al-vs-tosyali-holding-ltd/ |