Company: LIN
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-060925
Chunk: 38

Company: LINDE PLC
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 38
---
 theydesire.

During 2019, the Audit Committee conducted a comprehensive, competitive formal tender process to consider, and ultimately to recommend to the Board, the selection of an independent auditor for the Company. The Audit Committee considered and evaluated internationally recognized independent registered public accounting firms, including PwC, based upon a thorough set of criteria that the Audit Committee adopted. After conducting this process, the Audit Committee selected PwC as the independent auditor.

The Audit Committee will annually review the independence and performance of any potential independent auditor in deciding whether to select any given firm as the independent auditor. The Audit Committee considers, among other things, a firm’s:

Recent performance on the Linde audit, if applicable;

Capability and expertise in providing audit and related services to companies with the breadth and complexity of Linde’s worldwide operations;

An analysis of the firm’s known legal risks and any significant legal or regulatory proceedings in which it is involved;

External data on audit quality and performance, including recent Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) reports on the firm and its peer firms;

The appropriateness of the firm’s proposed fees for audit and non-audit services;

the firm’s independence (discussed below); and

if applicable, the firm’s tenure as Linde’s independent auditor, including the benefits of having a tenured auditor and controls and processes that help ensure the firm’s independence.

| 36 | Linde plc |

#### Audit MattersAuditor Independence
Auditor Independence

As noted in the Audit Committee Charter and in the Audit Committee Report presented below, the independent auditor reports directly to the Audit Committee and the Audit Committee is charged with evaluating its independence. The Audit Committee has adopted the policies and procedures discussed below that are designed to ensure that PwC is independent.

Based on this evaluation and representations from PwC, the Audit Committee believes that PwC is independent and that it is in the best interest of Linde and its shareholders to have PwC as the Company’s independent auditor for 2025.

Non-Audit Engagement Services Pre-Approval Policy

The Audit Committee has utilized PwC (along with other accounting firms) to provide non-audit services in 2024. Linde understands the need for PwC to maintain objectivity and independence as the auditor of the Company’s financial statements and its internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, the Audit Committee has established a policy whereby all non-audit fees of the independent auditor must be approved in advance by the Audit Committee or its Chairman, and

has