In principle, the BDI welcomes a reporting standard for listed SMEs that is reduced in scope and adapted to their activities and capacities. In particular, the function as an upper limit for queries of the downstream value chain to combat the trickle-down effect is essential. However, this upper limit should be selected in an even more reduced form, for example an adapted VSME (extended by the ‘EU data points’), in order to significantly reduce the trickle-down effect for affected SMEs.