Section 1 Conflict Minerals Disclosure
Item 1.01 Conflict Minerals Disclosure and Report
As used herein, unless otherwise specified or unless the context otherwise requires, references to Barnes & Noble,
B&N, Company, we, us or our refer to Barnes & Noble, Inc., and its consolidated subsidiaries.
In 2013, the Company established a task force responsible for the process of reporting conflict minerals usage in accordance with the rules
adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) pursuant to Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the Rule). Prior to filing its initial 2013 calendar year
Form SD, the Company adopted Standard Operating Procedures, updated from time to time, to address the Rule and posted a conflict minerals policy on its Vendor and Product Compliance Requirements page on
www.barnesandnobleinc.com
, on
which it also maintains a grievance mechanism that is available internally and externally to report concerns, including those related to conflict minerals. The Company also established the expectation, including contractual obligations or
specialized vendor certifications, that suppliers would obtain information from their supply chains regarding entities that process necessary conflict minerals and provide that information to us using the Responsible Minerals Initiatives
Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (the Conflict Minerals Template), which includes questions regarding the smelter, refiner, recycler or scrap processor of necessary conflict minerals and location or mine of origin for such minerals.
To commence the compliance process for its 2018 calendar year obligations, the Company risk-assessed all products manufactured or
contracted to be manufactured by the Company in order to identify products in scope. The Company determined that certain minerals which are identified as conflict minerals in the form of gold and the derivatives tin, tantalum, and tungsten
(collectively, 3TG) were contained in and necessary to the functionality or production of certain products in its NOOK
®
product line manufactured by the Company or
contracted by the Company to be manufactured (necessary conflict minerals). These necessary conflict minerals are in scope for these purposes, and are required to be reported for the calendar year ending 2018.
The Company is a purchaser of completed products and is many steps downstream in the minerals supply chain from smelters and
refiners. The Company does not purchase raw ore or unrefined conflict minerals. In 2018, the Companys
in-scope
products were comprised solely of certain NOOK
®
products, including
e-reader
devices and related accessories. These products were manufactured on
behalf of the Company. As such, the Company has limited influence over or direct information about the manufacturing process of these products and must rely on the information provided by its suppliers in identifying the source and chain of
custody of any conflict minerals contained in these products. Therefore, our efforts to determine the facilities used in the production of the conflict minerals, their country of origin and the mine or location of origin of the conflict
minerals was limited to the information that we obtained from our suppliers during our reasonable country of origin inquiry (RCOI), as described below.
The Company identified up to two direct suppliers for these necessary conflict minerals as being within the scope of its RCOI for 2018. The
Company conducted, in good faith, a RCOI that was reasonably designed to determine whether any of the necessary conflict minerals originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an adjoining country (collectively, the Covered
Countries), or were from recycled or scrap sources. Direct suppliers of
in-scope
NOOK
®
products were provided with and asked to return a completed Conflict Minerals Template, with the expectation that suppliers would obtain information from their supply chains regarding entities that process necessary conflict minerals and
provide that information to us. The Company received completed Conflict Minerals Templates from these direct suppliers. All of these Conflict Minerals Templates were certified and signed by an appropriate signatory of each suppliers
organization. Responses to the Conflict Minerals Template from suppliers were analyzed and reviewed for completeness, consistency, and reasonableness, and we made follow up inquiries as necessary.
Based on this RCOI, the Company knows or has reason to believe that some of the necessary conflict minerals originated or may have originated
in the Covered Countries and that these minerals may not have been derived entirely from recycled or scrap sources.
Conflict Minerals
Disclosure
Provided below is a link to the Companys internet disclosure for Conflict Minerals:
http://forinvestors.barnesandnobleinc.com/edgar.cfm
.
Item 1.02 Exhibit
On April 7, 2017, the staff in the SECs Division of Corporation Finance (the Staff) issued its Updated Statement
on the Effect of the Court of Appeals Decision on the Conflict Minerals Rule (the Updated Statement) which stated, among other things, that In light of the uncertainty regarding how the [SEC] will resolve those issues
[surrounding SECs conflict minerals disclosure requirements] and related issues raised by commenters, the Division of Corporation Finance has determined that it will not recommend enforcement action to the [SEC] if companies, including those
that are subject to paragraph (c) of Item 1.01 of Form SD, only file disclosure under the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (b) of Item 1.01 of Form SD.
Relying on the Staffs Updated Statement, the Company has chosen not to file, as an exhibit to this Form SD, the Conflict Minerals Report
otherwise required by Item 1.01(c).