French supermarket giant Casino sued over links to Amazon deforestation

The French supermarket giant Casino is being sued by a coalition of NGOs – including indigenous peoples from Brazil and Colombia – over its sale of beef linked to illegal deforestation in the Amazon.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a French court, comes after Casino was “officially put on notice” last September and warned to comply with laws regarding its supply chains in South America, where it is a leading supermarket retailer.

It follows a field investigation in June by the French NGO Envol Vert, which found that Casino's suppliers “regularly purchased” beef from three slaughterhouses involved in deforestation and land-grabbing activities in the Amazon, as well as Brazil's Cerrado savannah eco-region.

The lawsuit marks the first time a French supermarket chain has been legally pursued for deforestation, land grabbing and loss of livelihoods under 2017 duty of vigilance laws requiring French companies worldwide to guard against human rights and environmental violations in their supply chains.

Indigenous organisations are seeking compensation for the damage caused to their ancestral lands and the impact on their livelihoods.

Major player in South America
Casino's activities in South America account for nearly half of the group's revenue. It controls Grupo Pão de Açúcar, the largest food retailer in Brazil, as well as the Colombian retailer Almacenes Exito.

The lawsuit alleges that three of the slaughterhouses Casino did business with sourced their cattle from 592 suppliers responsible for at least 50,000 hectares of deforestation between 2008 and 2020.

“The purchase of beef by Casino and Grupo Pão de Açúcar leads to deforestation and land grabbing, as well as violence and the assassination of indigenous leaders when they choose to resist," said Luis Eloy Terena of COIAB, a body coordinating indigenous groups in the Brazilian Amazon.

The NGOs behind the lawsuit have also denounced the “double standard” of Casino's business practices in France, where it is behind organic wholefood labels such as Naturalia, compared with the activities of its subsidiaries abroad.

Casino has declined to comment on the lawsuit, although in the past the group has claimed to have “rigorous” controls throughout its supply chains.