Limited Assurance Report of the Independent Auditor regarding the Combined Nonfinancial Statement¹

To the Supervisory Board of adidas AG, Herzogenaurach

We have performed an independent limited assurance engagement on the non-financial statement of adidas AG, Herzogenaurach (further “Company” or “adidas”), that is combined with the non-financial statement of the parent company (further “combined non-financial statement”), for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022. The parts of the combined non-financial statement are integrated in the company’s annual report and marked accordingly.

Furthermore, we have performed a reasonable assurance engagement on the quantitative and qualitative disclosures related to the KPI “Sustainable article offering” in the section “Environmental impacts – Materials” in the chapter “Sustainability” of the combined non-financial statement. These are marked accordingly in the combined non-financial statement.

As described in the section “Social Impacts – Supply Chain – Working Conditions” in the combined non-financial statement, 1,222 social compliance and environmental audits at suppliers were performed by inhouse technical staff as well as external third-party monitors commissioned by adidas business entities and licensees. The reasonableness and accuracy of the conclusions from the performed audit work were not part of our assurance engagement.

Management’s responsibility

The legal representatives of the Company are responsible for the preparation of the combined non-financial statement in accordance with §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB (Handelsgesetzbuch, German Commercial Code) and with Article 8 of REGULATION (EU) 2020/852 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of June 18, 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (further “EU Taxonomy Regulation”) and the supplementing Delegated Acts as well as the interpretation of the wordings and terms contained in the EU Taxonomy Regulation and in the supplementing Delegated Acts by the Company as disclosed in Section “Sustainable Finance – EU Taxonomy” of the combined non-financial statement.

This responsibility of the legal representatives includes the selection and application of appropriate methods to prepare the combined non-financial statement and the use of assumptions and estimates for individual disclosures which are reasonable under the given circumstances. Furthermore, the legal representatives are responsible for the internal controls they deem necessary for the preparation of the combined non-financial statement free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud (manipulation of the combined non-financial statement) or error.

The EU Taxonomy Regulation and the supplementing Delegated Acts contain wordings and terms that are still subject to substantial uncertainties regarding their interpretation and for which not all clarifications have been published yet. Therefore, the legal representatives have included a description of their interpretation in Section “Sustainable Finance – EU Taxonomy” of the combined non-financial statement. They are responsible for its tenability. Due to the innate risk of diverging interpretations of vague legal concepts, the legal conformity of these interpretations is subject to uncertainty.

Independence and quality assurance of the assurance practitioner’s firm

We have complied with the independence and quality assurance requirements set out in the national legal provisions and professional pronouncements, in particular the Professional Code for German Public Auditors and Chartered Accountants (in Germany) and the quality assurance standard of the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer, IDW) regarding quality assurance requirements in audit practice (IDW QS 1).

Practitioner’s responsibility

It is our responsibility to express a conclusion with limited assurance on the combined non-financial statement and with reasonable assurance on the quantitative and qualitative disclosures related to the KPI “Sustainable article offering” in the section “Environmental impacts – Materials” in the chapter “Sustainability” of the combined non-financial statement based on our work performed.

Engagement to obtain limited assurance

We conducted our work in the form of a limited assurance engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): “Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information”, published by IAASB. Accordingly, we have to plan and perform the assurance engagement in such a way that we obtain limited assurance as to whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the combined non-financial statement of the Company for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022 has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and with the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the supplementing Delegated Acts as well as the interpretation of the wordings and terms contained in the EU Taxonomy Regulation and in the supplementing Delegated Acts by the legal representatives as disclosed in Section “Sustainable Finance – EU Taxonomy” of the combined non-financial statement. We do not, however, issue a separate conclusion for each disclosure.

As the assurance procedures performed in a limited assurance engagement are less comprehensive than in a reasonable assurance engagement, the level of assurance obtained is substantially lower. The choice of assurance procedures is subject to the auditor’s own judgment.

Within the scope of our engagement we performed, amongst others, the following procedures:

• Inquiries of group-level personnel who are responsible for the materiality analysis in order to understand the processes for determining material topics and respective reporting boundaries for adidas
• Inquiries of personnel who are responsible on group-level to obtain an understanding of the procedures used to identify relevant economic activities according to the EU Taxonomy
• A risk analysis, including media research, to identify relevant information on the company’s sustainability performance in the reporting period
• Reviewing the suitability of internally developed Reporting Criteria
• Evaluation of the design and the implementation of systems and processes for the collection, processing and monitoring of disclosures, including data consolidation, on environmental, employee and social matters, respect for human rights, and combating corruption and bribery
• Inquiries of group-level personnel who are responsible for determining disclosures on concepts, due diligence processes, results and risks, performing internal control functions and consolidating disclosures
• Evaluation of the design and the implementation of systems and processes for the collection, processing and monitoring of disclosures on turnover, capital expenditure and operating expenditure for the taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities
• Inspection of selected internal and external documents
• Analytical procedures for the evaluation of data and of the trends of quantitative disclosures as reported at group level by all sites
• Evaluation of local data collection, validation and reporting processes as well as the reliability of reported data based on a sample of the sites in Herzogenaurach, Germany and Spartanburg, United States
• Performing evidence-based assurance procedures, in particular testing of internal and external evidence
• Evaluation of the process for the identification of taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities and the corresponding disclosures in the combined non-financial statement
• Assessment of the overall presentation of the disclosures

The legal representatives have to interpret vague legal concepts in order to be able to compile the relevant disclosures according to Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Due to the innate risk of diverging interpretations of vague legal concepts, the legal conformity of these interpretations and, correspondingly, our assurance thereof are subject to uncertainty.

Engagement to obtain reasonable assurance

For the selected non-financial information on the KPI “Sustainable article offering”, we conducted our assurance engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements ISAE 3000 (Revised) as reasonable assurance engagement. This standard requires that we have to comply with our professional duties and that we plan and perform the assurance engagement in such a way that we, respecting the principle of materiality, reach our conclusion with a reasonable level of assurance. The selection of the assurance procedures is subject to the own professional judgment of the assurance practitioner.

In addition to the assurance procedures mentioned above, we performed the following assurance procedures:

• Evaluation of the design and implementation of systems and processes for identifying, processing and monitoring the underlying data, including the consolidation of data for the selected non-financial information on the KPI “Sustainable article offering”
• Performance of control-based assurance procedures to assess the design and effectiveness of controls over the identification, processing and monitoring of the underlying data for the selected non-financial information for the KPI “Sustainable article offering”
• Performance of evidence-based assurance procedures on the selected non-financial information on the KPI “Sustainable article offering”, in particular testing internal and external evidence and performing procedures on a sample basis in relation to the underlying data.

In our opinion, we obtained sufficient and appropriate evidence for reaching a conclusion for the assurance engagement.

Conclusion

Based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the combined non-financial statement of adidas AG for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022 has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and with the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the supplementing Delegated Acts as well as the interpretation disclosed in Section “Sustainable Finance – EU Taxonomy” of the combined non-financial statement.

In our opinion, the selected non-financial quantitative and qualitative disclosures related to the KPI “Sustainable article offering” of adidas AG for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022 have been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB.

We do not express an assurance opinion on the mentioned audits performed by inhouse technical staff as well as external third-party monitors commissioned by adidas business entities and licensees.

Restriction of use/general engagement terms

This assurance report is issued for purposes of the Supervisory Board of adidas AG, Herzogenaurach, only. We assume no responsibility with regard to any third parties.

Our assignment for the Supervisory Board of adidas AG, Herzogenaurach, and professional liability as descriped above was governed by the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschafts¬prüfer and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirt¬schaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) in the version dated January 1, 2017 (https://www.kpmg.de/bescheinigungen/lib/aab_english.pdf). By reading and using the information contained in this assurance report, each recipient confirms notice of the provisions contained therein including the limitation of our liability as stipulated in No. 9 and accepts the validity of the General Engagement Terms with respect to us.

Munich, February 24, 2023

KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

[Original German verson signed by:]

1 Our engagement applied to the German version of the combined non-financial statement 2022. This text is a translation of the Independent Assurance Report issued in German, whereas the German text is authoritative.