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1. Member States shall ensure that companies take appropriate measures to prevent, or where prevention is not possible or not immediately possible, adequately mitigate, potential adverse impacts that have been, or should have been, identified pursuant to Article 8, in accordance with Article 9 and with this Article. To determine the appropriate measures referred to in the first subparagraph, due account shall be taken of:

(a) whether the potential adverse impact may be caused only by the company; whether it may be caused jointly by the company and a subsidiary or business partner, through acts or omissions; or whether it may be caused only by a company’s business partner in the chain of activities;

(b) whether the potential adverse impact may occur in the operations of a subsidiary, direct business partner or indirect business partner; and (c) the ability of the company to influence the business partner that may cause or jointly cause the potential adverse impact.

2. Companies shall be required to take the following appropriate measures, where relevant:

(a) where necessary due to the nature or complexity of the measures required for prevention, without undue delay develop and implement a prevention action plan, with reasonable and clearly defined timelines for the implementation of appropriate measures and qualitative and quantitative indicators for measuring improvement; companies may develop their action plans in cooperation with industry or multi-stakeholder initiatives; the prevention action plan shall be adapted to companies’ operations and chains of activities;

(b) seek contractual assurances from a direct business partner that it will ensure compliance with the company’s code of conduct and, as necessary, a prevention action plan, including by establishing corresponding contractual assurances from its partners, to the extent that their activities are part of the company’s chain of activities; when such contractual assurances are obtained, paragraph 5 shall apply;

(c) make necessary financial or non-financial investments in, adjustments or upgrades of, for example, facilities, production or other operational processes and infrastructures;

(d) make necessary modifications of, or improvements to, the company’s own business plan, overall strategies and operations, including purchasing practices, design and distribution practices;

(e) provide targeted and proportionate support to an SME which is a business partner of the company, where necessary in light of the resources, knowledge and constraints of the SME, including by providing or enabling access to capacity-building, training or upgrading management systems, and, where compliance with the code of conduct or the prevention action plan would jeopardise the viability of the SME, by providing targeted and proportionate financial support, such as direct financing, low-interest loans, guarantees of continued sourcing, or assistance in securing financing;

(f) in compliance with Union law, including competition law, collaborate with other entities, including, where relevant, in order to increase the company’s ability to prevent or mitigate the adverse impact, in particular where no other measure is suitable or effective.

3. Companies may take, where relevant, appropriate measures in addition to the measures listed in paragraph 2, such as engaging with a business partner about the company’s expectations with regard to preventing and mitigating potential adverse impacts, or providing or enabling access to capacity-building, guidance, administrative and financial support such as loans or financing, while taking into consideration the resources, knowledge and constraints of the business partner.

4. As regards potential adverse impacts that could not be prevented or adequately mitigated by the appropriate measures listed in paragraph 2, the company may seek contractual assurances from an indirect business partner, with a view to achieving compliance with the company’s code of conduct or a prevention action plan. When such contractual assurances are obtained, paragraph 5 shall apply.

5. The contractual assurances referred to in paragraph 2, point (b), and in paragraph 4, shall be accompanied by appropriate measures to verify compliance. For the purposes of verifying compliance, the company may refer to independent third-party verification, including through industry or multi-stakeholder initiatives.

When contractual assurances are obtained from, or a contract is entered into with, an SME, the terms used shall be fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory. The company shall also assess whether the contractual assurances of an SME should be accompanied by any of the appropriate measures for SMEs referred to in paragraph 2, point (e). Where measures to verify compliance are carried out in relation to SMEs, the company shall bear the cost of the independent third-party verification. Where the SME requests to pay at least a part of the cost of the independent third-party verification, or in agreement with the company, that SME may share the results of such verification with other companies.

6. As regards potential adverse impacts as referred to in paragraph 1 that could not be prevented or adequately mitigated by the measures set out in paragraphs 2, 4 and 5, the company shall, as a last resort, be required to refrain from entering into new or extending existing relations with a business partner in connection with which, or in the chain of activities of which, the impact has arisen and shall, where the law governing their relations so entitles them, take the following actions, as a last resort:

(a) adopt and implement an enhanced prevention action plan for the specific adverse impact without undue delay, by using or increasing the company’s leverage through the temporary suspension of business relationships with respect to the activities concerned, provided that there is a reasonable expectation that those efforts will succeed; the action plan shall include a specific and appropriate timeline for the adoption and implementation of all actions therein, during which the company may also seek alternative business partners;

(b) if there is no reasonable expectation that those efforts would succeed, or if the implementation of the enhanced prevention action plan has failed to prevent or mitigate the adverse impact, terminate the business relationship with respect to the activities concerned if the potential adverse impact is severe.

Prior to temporarily suspending or terminating a business relationship, the company shall assess whether the adverse impacts from doing so can be reasonably expected to be manifestly more severe than the adverse impact that could not be prevented or adequately mitigated. Should that be the case, the company shall not be required to suspend or to terminate the business relationship, and shall be in a position to report to the competent supervisory authority about the duly justified reasons for such decision. Member States shall provide for an option to temporarily suspend or terminate the business relationship in contracts governed by their laws in accordance with the first subparagraph, except for contracts where the parties are obliged by law to enter into them. Where the company decides to temporarily suspend or to terminate the business relationship, it shall take steps to prevent, mitigate or bring to an end the impacts of the suspension or termination, shall provide reasonable notice to the business partner concerned and shall keep that decision under review.

Where the company decides not to temporarily suspend or terminate the business relationship pursuant to this Article, it shall monitor the potential adverse impact and periodically assess its decision and whether further appropriate measures are available.