(12)It is necessary to acknowledge the various business models of the ESG rating market. A first business model is the user-paid model, where users of ESG ratings are mainly investors that purchase ESG ratings for the purpose of making investment decisions. A second business model is the issuer-paid model, where undertakings purchase ESG ratings for the purpose of assessing risks and opportunities within their operations. In order to ensure greater reliability of ESG ratings provided in the Union, rated items or, in the case of a financial instrument or a financial product, issuers of rated items should have the possibility of verifying the data used by an ESG rating provider and of highlighting any factual errors in the dataset used that could potentially impact the quality of future ratings. To that end, a rated item or an issuer of a rated item should be able to access, upon request, the dataset used to issue the ESG rating. The possibility of verifying that dataset should be a pure fact-checking tool and rated items or issuers of rated items should under no circumstances be able to influence in any manner the rating methodologies or rating outcome. The requirement for an ESG rating provider to notify the rated item or the issuer of a rated item before the issuance of the ESG rating should only apply before the first issuance of the rating and not to any following updates. That requirement serves as a means to inform the rated item or the issuer of a rated item that it is going to be rated by the ESG rating provider.