Article 11 Bringing actual adverse impacts to an end

neutralise the adverse impact or minimise its extent; such measures shall be proportionate to the severity of the adverse impact and to the company’s implication in the adverse impact;

where necessary due to the fact that the adverse impact cannot be immediately brought to an end, without undue delay develop and implement a corrective 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 corrective action plan shall be adapted to companies’ operations and chains of activities;

seek contractual assurances from a direct business partner that it will ensure compliance with the company’s code of conduct and, as necessary, a corrective 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 6 shall apply;

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

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

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 corrective 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;

in compliance with Union law, including competition law, collaborate with other entities, including, where relevant, in order to increase the company’s ability to bring the adverse impact to an end or minimise the extent of such impact, in particular where no other measure is suitable or effective;

provide remediation in accordance with Article 12.

refrain from entering into new, or extending existing, relationships with a business partner in connection with which, or in the chain of activities of which, the impact has arisen;

where the law governing its relationship with the business partner concerned so entitles it, suspend the business relationship with respect to the activities concerned, including with a view to using or increasing its leverage, and

adopt and implement an enhanced corrective action plan for the specific adverse impact without undue delay, provided that there is a reasonable expectation that such efforts will succeed.