Supply Chain & Due Diligence
California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (CTSCA)
A 2010 California law requiring large retailers and manufacturers to disclose publicly what they do to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their supply chains.
Expert review openNo editor-accepted expert review yetDefinition
A California statute (SB 657, effective 2010; Civil Code §1714.43) requiring retail sellers and manufacturers doing business in California with annual worldwide gross receipts exceeding US$100 million to post a conspicuous website disclosure describing their efforts — if any — across five areas: verification of supply chains, audits of suppliers, supplier certification, internal accountability, and training on slavery and human trafficking.
References
SB 657 (2010); five disclosure areas (verification, audits, certification, internal accountability, training); disclosure-only design; influence on UK Modern Slavery Act. (Note: statute applies to entities with over US$100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts per Cal. Civ. Code §1714.43; the blog's figure of $100,000 is a typographical error.)
Enforcement authority; official guidance and covered-entity criteria.
Overview
What it means
CTSCA pioneered the "transparency-only" regulatory model: it mandates disclosure, not conduct — a company may comply by stating it does nothing. The bet is that sunlight disciplines: consumers, investors and campaigners use disclosures to pressure laggards.
The model proved globally influential, shaping the UK Modern Slavery Act (2015) and subsequent regimes in Australia and elsewhere — and its limitations (no substantive duty, uneven enforcement) drove the subsequent shift toward mandatory due-diligence laws in Europe. Enforcement sits with the California Attorney General, which publishes guidance and a compliance resource list.
How it is used
Covered companies publish supply-chain transparency statements; NGOs benchmark and grade disclosures; compliance teams map CTSCA statements against overlapping UK and Australian modern-slavery reporting.
Why it matters
CTSCA is the ancestor of modern supply-chain transparency law — the first statute to make forced-labour due diligence a public, reportable corporate responsibility, and the baseline from which stronger regimes were built.
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