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S4 - Objective

🗂️ ESRS S4 Consumers and End-users, page 31

  1. The objective of this Standard is to specify disclosure requirements which will enable users of the sustainability statement to understand material impacts on consumers and endusers connected with the undertaking’s own operations and value chain, including through its products or services, as well as through its business relationships, and its related material risks and opportunities, including:

(a) how the undertaking affects the consumers and/or end-users of its products and/or services (referred to in this Standard as “consumers and end-users”), in terms of material positive and negative actual or potential impacts;

(b) any actions taken, and the result of such actions, to prevent, mitigate or remediate actual or potential negative impacts, and to address risks and opportunities;

(c) the nature, type and extent of the undertaking’s material risks and opportunities related to its impacts and dependencies on consumers and end-users, and how the undertaking manages such risks and opportunities; and

(d) the financial effects on the undertaking over the short-, medium- and long-term of material risks and opportunities arising from the undertaking’s impacts and dependencies on consumers and/or end-users.

  1. In order to meet the objective, this Standard requires an explanation of the general approach the undertaking takes to identify and manage any material actual and potential impacts on the consumers and/or end-users related to its products and/or services in relation to:

(a) information-related impacts on consumers and/or end-users (for example, privacy, freedom of expression and access to (quality) information;

(b) personal safety of consumers and/or end-users (for example, health and safety, security of a person and protection of children);

(c) social inclusion of consumers and/or end-users (for example, non-discrimination, access to products and services and responsible marketing practices).

  1. This Standard also requires an explanation of how such impacts, as well as the undertaking’s dependencies on consumers and/or end-users, can create material risks or opportunities for the undertaking. For example, negative impacts on the reputation of the undertaking’s products and/or services can be detrimental to its business performance, while trust in products and/or services can bring business benefits, such as increased sales or widening of the future consumer base.

  2. The unlawful use or misuse of the undertaking’s products and services by consumers and end-users fall outside the scope of this standard.

Application Requirements

Section titled “Application Requirements”

AR 1. The undertaking may highlight special issues relevant to a material impact for a shorter period of time, for instance initiatives regarding the health and safety of consumers and/or end-users in relation to contamination of a product or severe breach of privacy due to a massive data leak.

AR 2. The overview of social and human rights matters provided in paragraph 2 is not meant to imply that all of these issues should be disclosed in each Disclosure Requirement in this Standard. Rather, it provides a list of matters that the undertaking shall consider in its materiality assessment (ref. to ESRS 1 chapter 3 Double materiality as the basis for sustainability disclosures and ESRS 2 IRO-1) related to consumers and/or end-users and, subsequently, disclose as material impacts, risks and opportunities within the scope of this Standard.