Recital 18

(18)This Regulation should not apply to the publication or distribution of data on environmental, social and human rights, and governance factors that do not result in the development of an ESG rating. Moreover, this Regulation should not apply to products or services that incorporate an element of an ESG rating, including investment research as laid down in Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁷ . External reviews of European Green Bonds, as provided for in Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁸ , and external reviews and second-party opinions on bonds marketed as environmentally sustainable, sustainability-linked bonds, and bonds, loans and other types of debt instruments marketed as sustainable, should also fall outside the scope of this Regulation to the extent that such external reviews and second-party opinions do not contain ESG ratings issued by the external reviewer or the second-party opinion provider. External reviews include reviews of pre-issuance disclosures, such as European Green Bond factsheets or frameworks of bonds marketed as sustainable, as well as reviews of post-issuance disclosures, such as European Green Bond annual allocation reports, European Green Bond impact reports and reports on bonds marketed as sustainable. Furthermore, this Regulation should not apply to ratings developed exclusively for accreditation or certification processes, as such ratings do not target investment analysis, financial analysis, investment decision-making or financial decision-making. Lastly, this Regulation should not apply to ESG labelling activities provided that the labels granted to entities, financial instruments or products do not involve the disclosure of an ESG rating.