Assurance report of the independent German public auditor on an assurance engagement to obtain limited and reasonable assurance in relation to the combined sustainability statement

To Deutsche Telekom AG, Bonn/Germany

ASSURANCE REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT GERMAN PUBLIC AUDITOR ON AN ASSURANCE ENGAGEMENT TO OBTAIN LIMITED AND REASONABLE ASSURANCE IN RELATION TO THE COMBINED SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT

Assurance Conclusion and Opinion

We have conducted a limited assurance engagement on the sustainability statement of Deutsche Telekom AG, Bonn/Germany, combining the consolidated sustainability statement and the non-financial statement of the parent, included in section “Combined sustainability statement” of the combined management report for the parent and the group, (“the Combined Sustainability Statement”) for the financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2024. In addition, we have performed a reasonable assurance engagement on the disclosures regarding the indicator “Total energy consumption” in section “ESRS E1‑5 – Energy consumption and mix” and regarding the indicator “GHG gross emissions Scopes 1 and 2 (market-based)” and “t CO₂e emissions Scope 2 (location-based)” in section “ESRS E1‑6 – Gross Scopes 1, 2 and 3 and total GHG emissions” included in the Combined Sustainability Statement. The Combined Sustainability Statement was prepared to fulfill the requirements of Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 14, 2022 (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD) and Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 and Sections 289b to 289e, 315b and 315c German Commercial Code (HGB) for a combined non-financial statement.

Not subject to our assurance engagement are the references to information of the Company outside of the combined management report.

Based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the Combined Sustainability Statement is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements of the CSRD and Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852, Sections 289b to 289e, 315b and 315c HGB for a combined non-financial statement, and the specifying criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company. This assurance conclusion includes that nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe

• that the consolidated sustainability statement included in the accompanying Combined Sustainability Statement does not comply, in all material respects, with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), including that the process carried out by the entity to identify information to be included in the consolidated sustainability statement (the materiality assessment) is not, in all material respects, in accordance with the description set out in section “ESRS 2 IRO-1 – Description of the processes to identify and assess material impacts, risks and opportunities” of the consolidated sustainability statement, or
• that the disclosures in the Combined Sustainability Statement do not comply, in all material respects, with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852.

In addition, based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained, the disclosures subject to a reasonable assurance engagement comply, in all respects material to the Combined Sustainability Statement, with the requirements of the CSRD and Sections 315b and 315c in conjunction with Sections 289c to 289e HGB for a consolidated non-financial statement, and the specifying criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company.

We do not express an assurance conclusion or assurance opinion on individual disclosures.

Furthermore, we do not express an assurance conclusion or assurance opinion on the above-mentioned parts of the Combined Sustainability Statement that were not covered by our assurance engagement.

Basis for the Assurance Conclusion and Opinion

We conducted our 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”, issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

The procedures performed in a limited assurance engagement vary in nature and timing from, and are less in extent than for, a reasonable assurance engagement. Consequently, the level of assurance obtained is substantially lower than the assurance that would have been obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement been performed.

Our responsibilities under ISAE 3000 (Revised) are further described in section “German Public Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Assurance Engagement on the Combined Sustainability Statement”.

We are independent of the entity in accordance with the requirements of European law and German commercial and professional law, and we have fulfilled our other German professional responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. Our audit firm has applied the requirements of the IDW Quality Management Standards. We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our assurance conclusion and opinion.

Responsibilities of the Executive Directors and the Supervisory Board for the Combined Sustainability Statement

The executive directors are responsible for the preparation of the Combined Sustainability Statement in accordance with the requirements of the CSRD and the applicable German legal and other European requirements as well as with the specifying criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company and for designing, implementing and maintaining such internal control as they have considered necessary to enable the preparation of a combined sustainability statement in accordance with these requirements that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud (i.e., fraudulent reporting in the Combined Sustainability Statement) or error.

This responsibility of the executive directors includes establishing and maintaining the materiality assessment process, selecting and applying appropriate reporting policies for preparing the Combined Sustainability Statement as well as making assumptions and estimates and ascertaining forward-looking information for individual sustainability-related disclosures.

The supervisory board is responsible for overseeing the process for the preparation of the Combined Sustainability Statement.

Inherent Limitations in Preparing the Combined Sustainability Statement

The CSRD and the applicable German legal and other European requirements contain wording and terms that are subject to considerable interpretation uncertainties and for which no authoritative comprehensive interpretations have yet been published. The executive directors have made interpretations of such wording and terms in the Combined Sustainability Statement. The executive directors are responsible for the reasonableness of these interpretations. As such wording and terms may be interpreted differently by regulators or courts, the legality of measurements or evaluations of the sustainability matters based on these interpretations is uncertain. The quantification of non-financial performance indicators disclosed in the Combined Sustainability Statement is also subject to inherent uncertainties.

These inherent limitations also affect the assurance engagement on the Combined Sustainability Statement.

German Public Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Assurance Engagement on the Combined Sustainability Statement

Our objective is to express a limited assurance conclusion based on the assurance engagement we have conducted, on whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the Combined Sustainability Statement has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the CSRD, the applicable German legal and other European requirements and the specifying criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company.

In addition, our objective is to express a reasonable assurance opinion based on the assurance engagement we have conducted, on whether the concerned disclosures of the Combined Sustainability Statement are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the CSRD, the applicable German legal and other European requirements and the specifying criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company.

Furthermore, our objective is to issue an assurance report that includes our assurance conclusion and opinion on the Combined Sustainability Statement.

As part of a limited and reasonable assurance engagement in accordance with ISAE 3000 (Revised), we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism. We also

• obtain an understanding of the process used to prepare the Combined Sustainability Statement, including the materiality assessment process carried out by the entity to identify the disclosures to be reported in the Combined Sustainability Statement. In respect of the disclosures subject to a reasonable assurance engagement, we also obtain an understanding of the controls that are relevant for preparing these disclosures.
• identify disclosures where a material misstatement due to fraud or error is likely to arise, design and perform procedures to address these disclosures and obtain limited assurance to support the assurance conclusion. In respect of the disclosures subject to a reasonable assurance engagement, we identify and assess the risks of material misstatement due to fraud or error, and design and perform procedures to address these risks and obtain reasonable assurance for our assurance opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations or the override of internal control. In addition, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources not within the entity’s control (value chain information) is ordinarily higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources within the entity’s control, as both the entity’s executive directors and we as practitioners are ordinarily subject to restrictions on direct access to the sources of the value chain information.
• consider the forward-looking information, including the appropriateness of the underlying assumptions. There is a substantial unavoidable risk that future events will differ materially from the forward-looking information.

Summary of the Procedures Performed by the German Public Auditor

A limited and reasonable assurance engagement involves the performance of procedures to obtain evidence about the sustainability information. The nature, timing and extent of the selected procedures are subject to our professional judgment.

In performing our limited assurance engagement, we

• evaluated the suitability of the criteria as a whole presented by the executive directors in the Combined Sustainability Statement.
• Inquired of the executive directors and relevant employees involved in the preparation of the Combined Sustainability Statement about the preparation process, including the materiality assessment processes carried out by the entity to identify the disclosures to be reported in the Combined Sustainability Statement, and about the internal controls related to this process.
• evaluated the reporting policies used by the executive directors to prepare the Combined Sustainability Statement.
• evaluated the reasonableness of the estimates and related information provided by the executive directors. If, in accordance with the ESRS, the executive directors estimate the value chain information to be reported for a case in which the executive directors are unable to obtain the information from the value chain despite making reasonable efforts, our assurance engagement is limited to evaluating whether the executive directors have undertaken these estimates in accordance with the ESRS and assessing the reasonableness of these estimates, but does not include identifying information in the value chain that the executive directors were unable to obtain.
• performed analytical procedures or tests of details and made inquiries in relation to selected information in the Combined Sustainability Statement.
• conducted site visits.
• considered the presentation of the information in the Combined Sustainability Statement.
• considered the process for identifying taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities and the corresponding disclosures in the Combined Sustainability Statement.

In performing our reasonable assurance engagement, we also

• obtained an understanding of internal controls also for control activities and monitoring of internal controls.
• conducted tests of design and implementation as well as of operating effectiveness for controls relevant to the assurance engagement.
• intensified substantive procedures by considering substantiated security of controls for obtaining reasonable assurance.
• conducted additional procedures to ascertain the estimates made by the executive directors.

Restriction of Use

We issue this report as stipulated in the engagement letter agreed with the Company (including the “General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüferinnen, Wirtschaftsprüfer and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (German Public Auditors and Public Audit Firms)” dated January 1, 2024 of the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer (IDW)). We draw attention to the fact that the assurance engagement was conducted for the Company’s purposes and that the report is intended solely to inform the Company about the result of the assurance engagement. Consequently, it may not be suitable for any other than the aforementioned purpose. Accordingly, the report is not intended to be used by third parties as a basis for making (financial) decisions based on it.

Our responsibility is to the Company alone. We do not accept any responsibility to third parties. Our assurance conclusion and opinion are not modified in this respect.

Düsseldorf/Germany, February 24, 2025

Deloitte GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft