Introduction

These forms have been designed to facilitate the voluntary notification of agreements between undertakings pursuant to Section 13(1) of Law No. 287 of 10 October 1990 and Section 2 of Presidential Decree No. 461 of 10 September 1991^((*)Replaced by Article 3 of the Presidential Decree No. 217 of 30 April 1998. [editor’s note]^*), and requests for clearance to proceed with restrictive agreements pursuant to Section 4 of Law No. 287 of 10 October 1990 and Section 10 of the Presidential Decree No. 461 of 10 September 1991^{(( )}Replaced by Article 4 of the Presidential Decree No. 217 of 30 April 1998. [editor’s note] ⁾ .

Any undertaking wishing to submit an exe mption application jointly with the voluntary notification of an agreement must specify whether the exemption application is being submitted sub-alternately to that notification. If so, the application will only be examined by the Authority if the examination is instituted pursuant to Section 14 of the Act as part of the examination which the Authority normally sets out to complete within 120 days.

Voluntary notification of agreements and requests for authorisation for exemption may be submitted by any one undertaking or by all the undertakings parties to agreements, or consortia or associations of undertakings in relation to resolutions adopted by them.

In the event of a joint notice, the undertakings should appoint a single representative for all the notifying or applicant parties. If notification is only submitted by some of the undertakings parties to the agreement, it is appropriate that they should inform the other undertakings by sending them a copy of the notification.

Notification of an agreement or an application for authorisation must contain all the information and be supplied complete with all the documents needed to assess the substance of the agreement or application, as indicated in the forms here published. If the information requested in the forms has already been submitted to the Authority with a previous notification, the notifying party may make reference to them, indicating any changes that may have occurred in the meantime.

If a notification is incomplete or untruthful, the Authority shall notify the undertakings concerned pursuant to Section 2(3) of the Implementing Regulation^((-)Replaced by Article 3(3) of the Presidential Decree No. 217 of 30 April 1998. [editor’s note]^-), without prejudice to the possibility of examining the notification even after the 120-day deadline provided by Section 13 of the Act. Time-limits only begins to count from the date on which a complete and truthful notification is received.

Unless the undertakings offer adequate grounds for requiring confidentiality, as soon as the voluntary notification is received the Authority may publish a short notice of the agreement in the bulletin, referred to in Section 26 of the Act, to invite third parties to submit their comments. To prevent the disclosure of confidential information, undertakings may specify the parts of the notification they wish to have excluded from the notice, or they may provide a short summary of the agreement themselves, stating the names of the parties, the relevant markets and the substance of the agreement.

In the case of a request for clearance to proceed with restrictive agreements, the Authority may request the undertakings to supply further information and to furnish documents of relevance to that request pursuant to Section 10(2) of the Implementing Regulation ^((#)Replaced by Article 4(3) of the Presidential Decree No. 217 of 30 April 1998. [editor’s note]^#), during which time the 120-day deadline provided by Section 4(3) of the Act is suspended, notwithstanding that a fine may be imposed pursuant to Section 14(5) of the Act.

As soon as a request for authorisation for exemption is received, the Authority will publish a short notice of the agreement for which authorisation is requested in the bulletin instituted under Section 26 of the Act, pursuant to Article 10(3) of the Implementing Regulation^((§)Replaced by Article 4(6) of the Presidential Decree No. 217 of 30 April 1998. [editor’s note]^§), inviting any third parties to submit their comments. To avoid the disclosure of any confidential information, the notifying parties may specify the parts of the notification which they intend to exclude from the notice, or they may provide a short summary of the agreement indicating the parties to it, the relevant markets and the substance of the agreement.

Undertakings are required to notify the Authority immediately of any change in the essential terms of the voluntary notification or request for authorisation referred to above as soon as such modification is made known to the parties or to any one of them, pursuant to Articles 2(4) and 10(2) of the Implementing Regulation ^((*)Replaced, respectively, by Articles 3(4) and 4(4) of the Presidential Decree No. 217 of 30 April 1998. [editor’s note]^*) ; the notification modifying the previous notice is deemed equivalent to the notification of a new agreement, for the purposes of calculating the 120-day deadline referred to in Sections 13 and 4(3) of the Act.

Any information notified by undertakings shall be treated as confidential pursuant to Sections 14(3) of the Act and Article 8 of the Implementing Regulation ^{(( )}Replaced by Article 12 of the Presidential Decree No. 217 of 30 April 1998. [editor’s note] ⁾ , except for the publication of decisions taken by the Authority in the bulletin pursuant to Section 26 of the Act. The notifying parties may indicate the documents or parts of them which they deem to be confidential, specifying the reasons why the information contained therein should not be disclosed to the other parties to the proceedings or to third parties.

The Authority shall not apply the penalties provided by Section 15(1) of the Act if the undertakings voluntarily refrain from concluding an agreement notified pursuant to Sections 4 and 13 while awaiting the decision of the Authority.