Recital 19

(19) Companies should take appropriate steps to set up and carry out due diligence measures, with respect to their own operations, those of their subsidiaries, as well as those of their direct and indirect business partners throughout their chains of activities in accordance with this Directive. This Directive should not require companies to guarantee, in all circumstances, that adverse impacts will never occur or that they will be stopped. For example, with respect to business partners, where the adverse impact results from State intervention, the company might not be in a position to arrive at such results. Therefore, the main obligations in this Directive should be obligations of means. The company should take appropriate measures which are capable of achieving the objectives of due diligence by effectively addressing adverse impacts, in a manner commensurate to the degree of severity and the likelihood of the adverse impact. Account should be taken of the circumstances of the specific case, the nature and extent of the adverse impact and relevant risk factors, including, in preventing and minimising adverse impacts, the specificities of the company’s business operations and its chain of activities, sector or geographical area in which its business partners operate, the company’s power to influence its direct and indirect business partners, and whether the company could increase its power of influence.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-08-27 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.