While it will be affected, Apple might mind less than others that the European Union has agreed to new rules to regulate corporate supply chains — in part, because the company is already moving in a similar direction.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have, hasn’t had, and likely will experience problems in its supply chain. But its annual supplier transparency, environmental responsibility, and other corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives do at least promise the company thinks about these things.

What the latest EU rule means is that competitors will need to be at least as responsible, too — and will be forced to include this data within their financial reporting.