Commentary Ch. II Paragraph 23

The Guidelines recognise that responsibility should not be shifted from an entity causing an adverse impact to the enterprise with which it has a business relationship. In this respect where an enterprise is directly linked to an adverse impact through a business relationship, but does not cause or contribute to it, it is not responsible for providing remediation, though it may take a role in doing so, but rather for using leverage alone or in co-operation with other entities, to influence the entity causing the adverse impact to prevent, mitigate or remediate that impact. Where an enterprise does not have sufficient leverage, it should consider ways to enhance its leverage. Enterprises can use or increase leverage in a number of ways to influence entities with which it has business relationships, for example, through support, training and capacity building; engagement to urge them to prevent and/or mitigate impacts; building expectations around responsible business conduct and due diligence specifically into commercial contracts such as management contracts, pre-qualification requirements for potential suppliers, voting trusts, and license or franchise agreements; linking business incentives with performance on responsible business conduct; engaging with regulators and policymakers on responsible business conduct issues; communicating the possibility of responsible disengagement if expectations around responsible business conduct are not respected, collaborating with other enterprises (at sectoral, risk or country level) to pool leverage and implementing common standards of responsible business conduct. Other factors relevant to determining the appropriate response to the identified risks include the severity and probability of adverse impacts and how crucial that supplier is to the enterprise.