Based on the results of the scoping exercise, companies should be required to carry out an in-depth assessment in the areas where adverse impacts were identified to be most likely to occur and most severe. Companies should not be required to request any information from business partners where no likely and severe risks were identified. The in-depth assessment should be aimed at obtaining accurate and reliable information, in particular about the nature, extent, causes, severity and likelihood of the identified adverse impacts, to enable the company to conduct, where relevant, the prioritisation of identified actual and potential adverse impacts in accordance with Directive (EU) 2024/1760 and adopt appropriate measures to address them in accordance with that Directive. To provide companies with additional flexibility, where a company has identified adverse impacts that are equally likely or equally severe in several areas, that company should be able to prioritise assessing adverse impacts which involve direct business partners. Companies are only required to take appropriate measures to identify adverse impacts. They are thus not required to identify every adverse impact in their operations, those of their subsidiaries, and those of their business partners. In some cases, that could lead to such an impact not being identified and, therefore, not being prevented, mitigated, brought to an end or minimised, despite the company having complied in full with its obligations under Directive (EU) 2024/1760. It follows that companies would not be penalised under that Directive for such an impact.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
