We present a pair of joint conditions on the two functions b 1 , b 2 strictly weaker than b 1 , b 2 ∈ BMO that almost characterize the L 2 boundedness of the iterated commutator [b 2 , [b 1 , T ]] of these functions and a Calderón-Zygmund operator T. Namely, we sandwich this boundedness between two bisublinear mean oscillation conditions of which one is a slightly bumped up version of the other.2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 42B20.Before proceeding any further, let us precisely define the commutatorwhere [A, B] = AB − BA for any two operations A, B, and b i f (·) = b i (·)f (·).We deal with the second order commutator [b 2 , [b 1 , T ]] but our results concerning sufficient conditions could just as well be formulated in the higher order cases.It follows by the John-Nirenberg inequality that if b 1 , b 2 ∈ BMO, then the conditions S p , T q hold for all p, q ≥ 1. Hence, a natural question is immediate: Are S p , and respectively T p , equivalent for all 1 ≤ p < ∞. Or even in a weaker sense: if both of the conditions S p , T p hold simultaneously, could we deduce S q or T q for some q > p? By Theorem 2.4 the answer is no.The next proposition will clarify the situation and point out how the counterexample in Theorem 2.4 can be constructed.Recall, that a function ω : R d → (0, ∞) is said to be in the class of A p weights, 1 < p < ∞, if[w] Ap = sup Q w Q