1.   Notifications pursuant to Article 3(3), first subparagraph, of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 shall contain all the information, including documents, indicated in the form set out in Annex I to this Regulation.

2.   Submissions of information following a Commission request for information referred to in Article 3(3), second subparagraph, of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 shall contain all the information, including documents, set out in the Commission’s request. The Commission may specify, in its request for information, which of the sections of the form set out in Annex I to this Regulation shall be completed.

3.   If, in accordance with Article 3(5) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, the notifying undertaking wishes to submit, with its notification, sufficiently substantiated arguments to demonstrate that, exceptionally, although it meets all the thresholds in Article 3(2) of that Regulation, due to the circumstances in which the relevant core platform service operates, it does not satisfy the requirements of Article 3(1) of that Regulation, it shall provide such arguments in an annex to its notification. A separate annex shall be submitted for each distinct core platform service for which the notifying undertaking wishes to provide substantiated arguments. The notifying undertaking shall also clearly identify to which of the three cumulative requirements set out in Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 its arguments relate and, for each argument, it shall explain why the relevant core platform service exceptionally does not satisfy that requirement despite the fact that it meets the corresponding threshold laid down in Article 3(2) of that Regulation.

4.   The information submitted to the Commission pursuant to paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall be correct, complete and not misleading. It shall be presented in a clear, well-structured and intelligible manner.

5.   Where the notifying undertaking requests any piece of information supplied not to be published or otherwise disclosed to other parties, it shall submit that piece of information in a separate document, with each page being clearly marked ‘Business Secrets’, and provide reasons.

6.   Notifications and submissions referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall be drafted in one of the official languages of the Union. The language of the procedure shall be the language of the notification referred to in paragraph 1 or, in the absence thereof, of the submission of information referred to in paragraph 2, unless the Commission and the undertaking concerned agree otherwise. Any annexes attached pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be submitted in their original language and, where their original language is not one of the official languages of the Union, they shall be accompanied by a faithful translation into the language of the procedure.

7.   The notifications and submissions referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall be accompanied by written proof that the persons submitting them are authorised to act on behalf of the undertaking concerned.

8.   The Commission may, upon reasoned request, exempt an undertaking from the obligation to provide specific documents or pieces of information required for the notification referred to in paragraph 1, where the Commission considers that compliance with those obligations is not necessary for its assessment of the notification pursuant to Article 3(4) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925.

9.   The Commission shall, without undue delay, acknowledge in writing to the undertaking concerned or its representatives receipt of notifications or submissions referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3.

1.   Where the information contained in a notification or in a submission of information or of substantiated arguments referred to in Article 2(1), (2) and (3) of this Regulation is incomplete in any material respect, the Commission shall inform the undertaking concerned or its representatives in writing without undue delay. In such a case, the notification or submission shall become effective on the date on which the complete information is received by the Commission or on the date on which the Commission informs the undertaking concerned that, in light of the relevant circumstances, the information requested is no longer necessary.

2.   If a notification, or a submission of information or of substantiated arguments referred to in Article 2(1), (2) and (3) covers two or more core platform services, the Commission may specify that the information contained in the notification or submission is incomplete only in relation to one or more of those core platform services. In such a case, with respect to these core platform services only, the notification or the submission shall become effective on the date on which the complete information is received by the Commission or on the date on which the Commission informs the undertaking concerned that, in light of the relevant circumstances, the information requested is no longer necessary.

3.   While a notification is under review, the notifying undertaking shall communicate the following to the Commission, without undue delay.

4.   The Commission shall inform the undertaking concerned of the receipt of the communication concerning the material changes or new information pursuant to paragraph 3 in writing and without undue delay. Where such changes or information could have a significant effect on the Commission’s assessment of the notification, of the submission of information or of substantiated arguments referred to in Article 2(1), (2) or (3), the notification or submission shall be deemed to be effective on the date on which the relevant information is received by the Commission. The Commission shall inform the undertaking thereof.

5.   For the purposes of this Article, partly or totally incorrect or misleading information shall be considered to constitute incomplete information.

1.   Documents submitted to the Commission under Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 shall comply with the format and page limits set out in Annex II to this Regulation.

2.   The Commission may, upon reasoned request, authorise an undertaking or association of undertakings to exceed those page limits where and to the extent that the undertaking or association of undertakings substantiates that it is objectively impossible or exceedingly difficult to deal with particularly complex legal or factual issues within the relevant page limits.

3.   Where a document submitted by an undertaking or an association of undertakings pursuant to this Regulation or to Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 does not comply with paragraphs 1 and 2, the Commission may request the undertaking or association of undertakings to put the document in order.

1.   The Commission may decide to open proceedings with a view to adopting a decision pursuant to Article 29 of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 at any point in time, but no later than the date on which it issues the preliminary findings pursuant to Article 29(3) of that Regulation.

2.   The Commission shall make public the opening of proceedings.

1.   Unless otherwise provided for in Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 or Article 8 of this Regulation and without prejudice to paragraph 6 of this Article, information or documents collected or obtained by the Commission shall not be disclosed or made accessible by the Commission in so far as they contain business secrets or other confidential information of any natural or legal person.

2.   When requesting information pursuant to Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 or, carrying out interviews pursuant to Article 22 of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, the Commission shall inform the relevant natural or legal persons that, by providing information to the Commission, they agree that access to that information may be granted pursuant to Article 8 of this Regulation. In any event, the provisions of Article 8 shall apply to any document spontaneously submitted to the Commission under Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 or this Regulation.

3.   Without prejudice to paragraph 2, the Commission may require natural or legal persons who are the originators of documents in its file to identify the documents, statements or parts thereof which they consider to contain business secrets or other confidential information. The Commission may also set a time-limit for natural or legal persons to identify any part of a Commission decision which in their view contains business secrets or other confidential information.

4.   The Commission may set a time-limit for natural or legal persons to:

5.   If natural or legal persons fail to comply within the time-limit set by the Commission with a request pursuant to paragraph 3 or 4, the Commission may consider that the documents or statements concerned do not contain business secrets or other confidential information.

6.   If the Commission determines that certain information that is claimed confidential by a natural or legal person may be disclosed, either because this information does not constitute a business secret or other confidential information, or because there is an overriding interest in its disclosure, it shall inform the natural or legal person concerned that it intends to disclose such information unless it receives objections within one week. Should the natural or legal person in question object, the Commission may adopt a reasoned decision specifying the date after which the information will be disclosed. This date shall not be less than one week from the date of notification. The decision shall be notified to the natural or legal person concerned.

7.   Unless otherwise indicated by the Commission, any comments by third parties on a publication or consultation pursuant to Article 8(6), Article 18(5) and (6), Article 19(2) and Article 29(4) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 shall be treated as non-confidential. Interested third parties submitting comments shall have the right to request the redaction of the author’s and the sender’s name or other identifying information before the comments are shared with the addressee of the preliminary findings or with any other third party. The Commission may make those comments, or any non-confidential version thereof, publicly available, provided it has indicated this possibility in the context of the publication or consultation.

1.   Upon request, the Commission shall grant access to the file to the undertaking or association of undertakings to which it has addressed preliminary findings pursuant to Article 34(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 (the “addressee”). Access to the file shall not be granted before the notification of the preliminary findings.

2.   When providing access to the file, the Commission shall provide the addressee with all documents mentioned in the preliminary findings, subject to redactions that have been made pursuant to Article 7(3) in order to protect business secrets or other confidential information.

3.   Without prejudice to paragraph 4, the Commission shall also provide access to all documents on its file, without any redactions, under terms of disclosure to be set out in a Commission decision. The terms of disclosure shall be determined in accordance with the following:

4.   In exceptional circumstances the Commission may decide not to grant access to certain documents or to grant access to partly redacted documents under the terms of disclosure referred to in paragraph 3 if it determines that the harm that the party that submitted the documents in question would likely suffer from disclosure under those terms would, on balance, outweigh the importance of the disclosure of the full document for the exercise of the right to be heard. Without prejudice to Article 34(4), fourth and fifth sentences, of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, the Commission may for the same reason decide not to disclose or partly disclose correspondence between the Commission and public authorities of the Member States or of third countries and other types of sensitive documents.

5.   The specified external legal and economic counsel and external technical experts referred to in paragraph 3 may, within one week of receiving access to the file under the terms of disclosure, make a reasoned request to the Commission for access to a non-confidential version of any document on the Commission’s file not already provided to the addressee under paragraph 2, with a view to making such non-confidential version available to the addressee, or for an extension of the terms of disclosure to additional specified external legal and economic counsel or external technical experts. Such additional access or extension may only be granted exceptionally and provided that it is shown to be indispensable for the proper exercise of the addressee’s right to be heard.

6.   For the purposes of applying paragraph 4 or 5, the Commission may request the party that submitted the documents in question to provide a non-confidential version thereof pursuant to Article 7(3) and (4).

7.   Where the Commission considers a request under paragraph 5 to be well-founded in view of the need to ensure that the addressee is in a position to exercise its right to be heard effectively, the Commission shall request the party that submitted the documents in question either to agree to making a non-confidential version available to the addressee or to agree to the extension of the terms of disclosure to specified individuals or undertakings for the documents in question only. In the event that the party that submitted the documents in question does not agree, the Commission shall adopt a decision setting out the terms of disclosure for the documents in question.

8.   Documents obtained through access to the file pursuant to this Article shall only be used for the purposes of the relevant proceedings within which access to those documents was given or of administrative or judicial proceedings concerning the application of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 that are related to those proceedings.

9.   At any time during the procedure, the Commission may instead of or in combination with the method of granting access to the file pursuant to paragraph 3 above, give access to some or all documents redacted pursuant to Article 7(3) in order to avoid a disproportionate delay or administrative burden.

1.   Without prejudice to paragraph 2, the time limits under Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 and this Regulation shall be calculated in accordance with Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 1182/71.

2.   By way of derogation from paragraph 1, time periods shall begin running on the working day following the event to which the relevant provision of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 or this Regulation refers.

3.   Where a document does not comply with the requirements regarding format and length laid down in Annex II to this Regulation, time periods shall not start running until the document is put in order in accordance with a request by the Commission pursuant to Article 4(3)

1.   Where the Commission sets a time-limit under Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 or this Regulation, it shall have due regard to all relevant elements of fact and law and all the interests concerned, in particular the possibility for individuals to exercise their right to be heard and the expediency of the proceedings.

2.   Where appropriate and upon reasoned request by the undertakings or associations of undertakings concerned before the expiry of the time-limit set by the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 or this Regulation, a time-limit may be extended. In deciding whether to grant such extension, the Commission shall assess whether the reasoned request is sufficiently substantiated and whether the requested extension is liable to endanger compliance with the applicable procedural time limits laid down in Regulation (EU) 2022/1925.

1.   Transmission of documents to and from the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 and this Regulation shall take place by digital means. Technical specifications regarding the means of transmission and signature may be published and regularly updated by the Commission.

2.   Documents transmitted by digital means shall be signed using at least one Qualified Electronic Signature complying with the requirements set out in Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council. (3)

3.   Documents transmitted to the Commission by digital means shall be deemed to have been received on the day on which an acknowledgement of receipt is sent by the Commission.

4.   A document transmitted to the Commission by digital means shall be deemed not to have been received if one of the following circumstances occurs:

5.   The Commission shall inform the sender without undue delay if one of the circumstances referred to in paragraph 4 occurs and give it the possibility to express its views and rectify the situation within a reasonable time limit.

6.   By way of derogation from paragraph 1, under exceptional circumstances which make transmission by digital means impossible or exceedingly difficult, documents may be transmitted to the Commission by registered mail. Those documents shall be deemed to have been received by the Commission on the day of their delivery at the address of the responsible Commission service as published by the Commission on its website.

7.   By way of derogation from paragraph 1, under exceptional circumstances which make transmission by digital means and registered mail impossible or exceedingly difficult, documents may be transmitted to the Commission by means of hand delivery. Those documents shall be deemed to have been received on the day of their delivery at the address of the responsible Commission service as published by the Commission on its website. The delivery shall be confirmed in an acknowledgement of receipt by the Commission.