The check answers a single question: which of the nine regimes covered applies to a company with given key figures, and from when. This page sets out how it calculates, what it deliberately leaves out, and where every figure comes from.
Four steps from key figures to a date
Every regime goes through the same sequence. In the detail sheet of the check you can see, for each individual criterion, which value was used and whether it is met.
Scope
First the substantive question: is packaging placed on the German market, is there a digital consumer offering, does the business fall under an annex of the BSIG, are commodities under Annex I of the Deforestation Regulation traded.
Size criterion
Then the quantitative test against employees, turnover and balance sheet total, combined the way the statute in question requires, which is cumulative in some places and alternative in others.
Timing
Scope and size class together give the date of application. Staged regimes such as the AI Act carry a separate stage for each set of duties.
Distance
Where a threshold is missed, the gap is stated rather than a bare “not in scope”. That makes it visible when preparation should begin.
Why two employee figures are asked for
Section 1(1) of the German Supply Chain Act counts employees in Germany, while the European regimes look at the group as a whole. A group of 7,800 employees, 4,100 of them in Germany, therefore falls under the CSDDD but is not counted the same way as a purely domestic company of the same size. A single headcount would give the wrong answer here.
Why the question is about the sector, not the annex
Whether a business falls under the BSIG is decided by Annexes 1 and 2 of that act. Almost nobody knows that mapping by heart. The check therefore asks for the line of business and derives the annex from a catalogue of twenty-one entries. Which entry leads to which annex is published in the rule set.
What the check does not do
The model covers the standard thresholds, not the individual case. That boundary is not a formality; it is the reason the output is an orientation rather than legal information. Not covered, in particular:
- group attribution and attribution through affiliated undertakings, including exemptions for subsidiaries included in consolidated accounts,
- special rules for credit institutions, financial service providers and insurance undertakings,
- sector-specific deviations and special statutes that sit alongside the regimes covered,
- transitional provisions, grandfathering, hardship rules and individual decisions by authorities,
- legislative and transposition procedures still open at the stated legal cut-off date.
What governs is the text of the law in the version in force. At the cut-off date, the German act transposing the CSRD and the announced replacement of the Supply Chain Act by a CSDDD transposition act had not been completed. The legal boundaries of this offering are set out in the Haftungsausschluss, which is held in German.
The rule set
Thresholds and dates do not sit in the source code of the interface. They live in a versioned data file that is fetched when the page loads. Every change in the law is therefore a dated entry with a source rather than a silent correction in code, recorded in the change log. A test suite checks every threshold at its boundary, one value below and one above, and the five example profiles against their expected outcome.
The same file carries the concrete duties for each regime, split into one-off, ongoing, annual and deadline-bound, together with the date each source was last checked and the review cycle set for it. The language layer sits beside it: the rule set itself is language-neutral, the English wording lives in its own file, and the test suite checks it piece by piece against the German for completeness.
Files regelwerke.v1.json· schema.json· CHANGELOG.md· README.md· engine.mjs· i18n.en.json
Where the figures come from
Every figure in the model is traced to a publicly available source. Authorities and chambers of commerce first, expert commentary only where no official summary existed at the cut-off date. The texts of statutes and regulations are themselves official works and free of copyright under section 5 of the German Copyright Act.
Each source carries the date it was last checked and the interval at which it will be checked again. The four regimes currently being rewritten are checked monthly, the others quarterly or twice a year.
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Legal position as of 12 October 2026Back to the check