Article 12Establishment and maintenance of due diligence systems, reporting and record keeping

1. In order to exercise due diligence in accordance with Article 8, operators shall establish and keep up to date a framework of procedures and measures to ensure that the relevant products they place on the market or export comply with Article 3 (‘due diligence system’).

2. Operators shall review the due diligence system at least once a year. Where operators become aware of new developments which could influence the due diligence system, they shall update the due diligence system to take account of those developments. Operators shall keep a record of such updates in their due diligence systems for five years

3. Operators who do not fall within the categories of SMEs, including microenterprises, or natural persons shall, on an annual basis, publicly report as widely as possible, including via the internet, on their due diligence system, including on the steps taken by them to fulfil their obligations as set out in Article 8. Operators who fall also within the scope of other Union legal acts that lay down requirements regarding value chain due diligence may fulfil their reporting obligations under this paragraph by including the required information when reporting in the context of those other Union legal acts.

4. Without prejudice to Union data protection legislation, the reporting as referred to in paragraph 3 shall include the following information concerning relevant commodities and relevant products:

(a)

a summary of the information referred to in Article 9(1), points (a), (b) and (c);

(b)

the conclusions of the risk assessment carried out pursuant to Article 10 and measures undertaken pursuant to Article 11 and a description of the information and evidence obtained and used to assess the risk;

(c)

where applicable, a description of the process of consultation of indigenous peoples, local communities and other customary tenure rights holders or of the civil society organisations that are present in the area of production of the relevant commodities and relevant products.

5. Operators shall keep for at least five years all documentation related to due diligence, such as all records, measures and procedures pursuant to Article 8. They shall make that documentation available to the competent authorities upon request.