She is not the first to be found guilty in this way. On Monday, September 11, the Rennes criminal court sentenced the company ISB France to a fine of 100,000 euros for having illegally imported wood from Brazil.
The company based near Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) was found guilty of having placed on the market wood or derived products “not in compliance with the due diligence system” in 2016 and 2017. The court found that in as part of a “complex supply chain” the company “could not ignore” the risk of importing illegally harvested wood. Before adding that the ISB company should have “conducted checks on open source websites” regarding partner backgrounds.
According to investigators, the company imported “four batches of ipe terrace boards” from cuts made in the state of Para, the gateway to the Amazon forest in Brazil. The fine of 100,000 euros, less than the 165,000 euros required by the prosecution in June 2023. The Breton company, which presents itself as the French leader in wood solutions for housing and construction, will also have to compensate three associations which had brought civil party. Greenpeace, France Nature Environnement and Canopée will receive 10,000, 5,000 and 5,000 euros respectively.
On September 6, the Châteauroux criminal court sentenced an Indre company to a fine of 20,000 euros, including 10,000 suspended, for not having effectively controlled its Brazilian suppliers in the context of a case of illegal import of drink. In a press release released Monday, Greenpeace France, FNE and Canopée estimated that “the jurisdictions have witnessed the disconnection of importers with the environmental risks of their own products”, estimating that “this absence of environmental awareness testifies to a degree of particularly serious negligence”.