Sustainable Companies and Stakeholders Interests

The paper explores the legal framework of benefit corporations and the balance between shareholders’ and stakeholders’ interests in corporate sustainability. It highlights critical issues related to stakeholders’ protection and the legal uncertainties in balancing profit-driven and public interest objectives. The risk of "neoliberal greenwashing" is addressed, by asking whether benefit corporation legislation genuinely promotes corporate social responsibility or merely serves as a reputational shield. The role of regulatory oversight is addressed in this connection, in particular through the Italian competition authority, which recently sanctioned a benefit corporation for misleading commercial practices.