(a) An Accredited Conformity Assessment Body that is an independent third party conformity assessment body is one that is not owned, managed, or controlled by a Person or Certified Person that is the subject of attestation or audit by the Accredited Conformity Assessment Body.

(1) A Person or Certified Person is considered to own, manage, or control a third party conformity assessment body if any one of the following characteristics applies:

(i) The Person or Certified Person holds a 10 percent or greater ownership interest, whether direct or indirect, in the third party conformity assessment body. Indirect ownership interest is calculated by successive multiplication of the ownership percentages for each link in the ownership chain;

(ii) The third party conformity assessment body and the Person or Certified Person are owned by a common “parent” entity;

(iii) The Person or Certified Person has the ability to appoint a majority of the third party conformity assessment body's senior internal governing body (such as, but not limited to, a board of directors), the ability to appoint the presiding official (such as, but not limited to, the chair or president) of the third party conformity assessment body's senior internal governing body, and/or the ability to hire, dismiss, or set the compensation level for third party conformity assessment body personnel; or

(iv) The third party conformity assessment body is under a contract to the Person or Certified Person that explicitly limits the services the third party conformity assessment body may perform for other customers and/or explicitly limits which or how many other entities may also be customers of the third party conformity assessment body.

(2) A state or local government office of Inspector General or Auditor General and a Person or Certified Person that is a department or agency of the same state or local government, respectively, are not considered to be owned by a common “parent” entity under paragraph (a)(1)(ii) of this section.

(b) [Reserved]