AFIEGO et al. v. Total

On June 27, 2023, 26 members of communities affected by the Tilenga and EACOP projects in Uganda, human rights defender Maxwell Atuhura and five associations - AFIEGO, Friends of the Earth France, NAPE/Friends of the Earth Uganda, Survie and TASHA Research Institute - have sued energy company Total over an oil project in Uganda and Tanzania. The plaintiffs allege that Total failed to adequately assess the project's threats to human rights and the environment and claim compensation for these alleged violations. This lawsuit follows a previous case that has been dismissed (Friends of the Earth et al. v. Total), where plaintiffs claimed for an injunction. As the alleged damages have since occurred, the plaintiffs now claim compensation. Under the 2017 French Duty of Vigilance Law, incorporated in the French Commercial Code in articles L225-102-4 and L225-102-5, French companies must identify and prevent, in a due diligence plan (plan de vigilance), serious violations of human rights and to the environment that could occur as a result of their business practices, including at the level of their foreign subsidiaries and subcontractors. The plaintiffs claim that these shortcomings of the vigilance plan have caused damages to the rights of the members of the communities affected, and, in particular: (1) People affected by the Tilenga and EACOP projects were deprived of the free use of their land even before receiving compensation, and this for more than three or four years, thus violating their property rights. (2) This has led to the deprivation of their means of subsistence, resulting in severe food shortages and even famine, thus violating their right to adequate food. (3) From 2022, land in some villages was affected by flooding caused by the construction of the Tilenga project's processing plant (CPF). (4) Only a minority of people were able to benefit from compensation in kind, and for the others financial compensation was largely insufficient. (5) In many cases, the transfer of land to Total was the result of pressure and intimidation, and the consent of those affected was therefore vitiated. (6) Several plaintiffs were threatened, harassed and arrested simply because they dared to criticize the oil projects in Uganda and Tanzania and defend the rights of the affected communities. Plaintiffs claim that Total has not identified the risks relating to these risks in its vigilance plan; failed to act even though it was in a position to identify these risks before they occurred, and when it had been alerted about their existence; failed to implement corrective measures once the violations had occurred, even though it had been alerted about their existence. Article L225-102-5 of the French Commercial Code provides that : «under the conditions laid down in Articles 1240 and 1241 of the French Civil Code, failure to comply with the obligations defined in Article L. 225-102-4 of this Code entails the liability of the non-complying subjects and obliges them to compensate for the damage that could have been avoided by complying with these obligations.» The plaintiffs claim compensation for the aforementioned damages they have incurred because of the violation of the Law on the Duty of Vigilance. In the most recent stage of the case, plaintiffs filed a motion requesting the court to order Total Energies to disclose documents necessary for assessing the company’s compliance with its legal obligations under the French Duty of Vigilance Law. The requested documents include non-public TotalEnergies reports used for calculating compensation amounts for individuals who were evicted, a study on construction-induced floods, and internal audits. A hearing on this request occurred on 15 May 2025, and once the court rules on this matter, a substantive hearing will likely occur in 2026.