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1. In order to demonstrate compliance with this Regulation, an operator or a group of operators shall participate in a certification scheme recognised by the Commission pursuant to Article 13.

2. Certification schemes shall operate in an independent manner on the basis of reliable and transparent rules and procedures, in particular with regard to internal management and monitoring, handling of complaints and appeals, stakeholder consultation, transparency and publication of information, appointment and training of certification bodies, addressing non-conformity issues, and development and management of certification registries. Certification schemes shall set transparent fees and make information about those fees easily accessible to operators, including by publishing them on their websites. Certification schemes shall put in place easily accessible complaint and appeal procedures. Information about those procedures shall be made publicly available in the certification registry or, once established, in the Union registry.

3. Certification schemes shall verify whether the information and data submitted by an operator or a group of operators for the certification of compliance pursuant to Article 9 were subject to independent auditing and whether the certification of compliance, including the re-certification audit reports, was carried out in an accurate, reliable and cost-effective manner.

4. Certification schemes shall at least annually publish in their certification registries or, once established, in the Union registry a list of the appointed certification bodies, stating for each certification body by which national accreditation body it was accredited or by which national competent authority it was recognised and which national competent authority is monitoring it.

5. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts setting out the structure, format, technical details and process required for the purposes of paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article which are to apply to all certification schemes recognised by the Commission. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 17.