Limited assurance
Limited assurance is the level of verification the CSRD requires for sustainability reports: an auditor or independent assurance provider checks that nothing has come to their attention suggesting the report is materially misstated.
It is a lighter review than the reasonable assurance applied to financial statements. The auditor works mainly through inquiries and analytical procedures, and states a negative conclusion ("nothing has come to our attention") rather than a positive opinion.
The check covers the double materiality process, compliance with the ESRS, the EU Taxonomy disclosures and the digital tagging of the report. In France, the work can be done by a statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes) or an accredited independent third-party body (OTI). The Omnibus I directive dropped the earlier plan to move to reasonable assurance.