What does stakeholders mean?
Stakeholders is part of the formal vocabulary used in supply-chain due diligence, adverse-impact governance, and corporate responsibility. For this glossary, the key point is understanding how the source defines the term and where that definition sits within broader compliance or data requirements.
Official definitions by source
CSDDD
Directive (EU) 2024/1760 on corporate sustainability due diligence
the company’s employees, the employees of its subsidiaries, trade unions and workers’ representatives, consumers and other individuals, groupings, communities or entities whose rights or interests are or could be affected by the products, services and operations of the company, its subsidiaries and its business partners, including the employees of the company’s business partners and their trade unions and workers’ representatives, national human rights and environmental institutions, civil society organisations whose purposes include the protection of the environment, and the legitimate representatives of those individuals, groupings, communities or entities;
Reference: Article 3, point n
View official source
Why it matters in practice
In practice, this term matters when mapping who is responsible for obligations, declarations, market placement, recordkeeping, or due-diligence steps within supply-chain due diligence, adverse-impact governance, and corporate responsibility.
Minespider commentary
For Minespider, stakeholders is best treated as a responsibility and workflow term. The important question is which actor, document, or compliance step the source is actually assigning through this definition.
Common confusions
- Assuming the everyday meaning of stakeholders is enough without checking the official source definition.
- Using stakeholders as a loose generic label rather than the narrower meaning used in the source text.
- Confusing stakeholders with a neighboring legal actor or responsibility term without checking how the source allocates obligations.
Related regulations