Corporate Climate Duty
TotalEnergies Appeals Paris Court Ruling on Customer Emissions Liability
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Key Points
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Public Prosecutor's Office backs TotalEnergies' position that climate change is a global phenomenon and primarily the responsibility of states, not within the duty of vigilance.
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TotalEnergies argues that extending the duty of vigilance to cover risks from how customers use its products would conflict with legal certainty and freedom to conduct business.
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TotalEnergies emphasizes motorists should have access to the energy they choose to use, reflecting its stance on consumer energy choice.
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The case will proceed to the Court of Appeal in Paris, where TotalEnergies will present these arguments in a new proceedings stage.
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TotalEnergies is a global integrated energy company operating in about 120 countries and employing more than 100,000 people, underscoring the scale of potential implications from the ruling and its appeal.
TotalEnergies has announced it will appeal a Paris court ruling that held the French oil giant responsible for greenhouse gas emissions produced when customers burn its fuel, according to Reuters. The decision, issued under France's duty of vigilance law, ordered TotalEnergies to bring its business in line with climate targets.
The appeal marks a major test of how far corporate climate liability can stretch. The central question: can a company be held legally responsible not just for its own emissions, but for what happens when millions of drivers fill up their tanks?
Paris Court Extended Liability to Customer Emissions
The Paris court found that TotalEnergies bore responsibility for so-called Scope 3 emissions — the pollution released when end users burn the company's products. That is a significant expansion of the duty of vigilance law, which was passed in France in 2017 to hold large companies accountable for human rights and environmental risks in their operations.
TotalEnergies operates in around 120 countries and employs more than 100,000 people. The scale of the company means the ruling could have sweeping implications for how energy companies plan and report their emissions across the entire supply chain.
TotalEnergies Argues Climate Is a Government Problem, Not Theirs
TotalEnergies made two main arguments against the ruling. First, the company said climate change is a global problem that states — not businesses — are primarily responsible for solving. Second, it argued that the duty of vigilance law was never meant to cover how customers choose to use a product, Yahoo Finance reported.
Notably, France's Public Prosecutor's Office backed TotalEnergies on the first point, agreeing that climate change falls outside the scope of the duty of vigilance. The company also pointed to the EU's new Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which does not require companies to monitor customer activities — a sign TotalEnergies wants to keep the law narrow.
Extending Liability Could Reshape Business Freedom, Company Warns
TotalEnergies argued that forcing companies to manage how customers use their products would threaten legal certainty and the basic freedom to run a business. The company said motorists should have access to the fuel they choose. Restricting that, it argued, goes beyond what any duty of care law was designed to do.
The case now moves to the Paris Court of Appeal for a full new round of proceedings. A ruling there could set a precedent for dozens of other climate cases across Europe targeting fossil fuel producers.
Climate Litigation Against Big Oil Is Growing Fast
TotalEnergies is not alone. Courts in the Netherlands, Germany, and elsewhere have seen similar cases push companies to cut emissions faster. The trend reflects a growing effort by environmental groups to use law, not just lobbying, to force change on major fossil fuel producers.
TotalEnergies says it is already investing in lower-carbon energy and balancing that with continued fuel production. But critics argue that appeal is a stalling tactic. The outcome in Paris could shape how EU due diligence rules are read for years to come.
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