Practical Information for foreign subsidies in notifiable concentrations

Before (pre) notifying, please send this case team allocation request (.docx format) to the Foreign Subsidies Registry by comp-fsr-registryec [dot] europa [dot] eu (email). For case team allocation requests received no later than 12.00 Brussels time on a Friday, DG Competition will allocate staff the following week.

Due to technical constraints, the size of a single email sent to DG Competition should not exceed 15 MB.

EU Send

Secure document exchange platform

EU Send requires prior registration. Transmissions below 10 gigabytes but exceeding the size limitations of EU Send (4 gigabytes) should be transmitted in two or three parts. A transmittal form provided by EU Send must be completed correctly and diligently. For more information on EUSend see here.

EU Send can be used to send to the Commission:

• Draft Form FS CO
• Responses to Requests for Information
• Responses to requests for internal documents, if smaller than 4 GB
• Comments following the opening of an in-depth investigation
• Observation on the Commission’s grounds on which it intends to adopt its decision
• Submission of commitments
• Any other submission to the Commission

Opening hours for processing digital submissions in EU Send:

• Notifications filed electronically on Mondays to Thursdays before 17:00 CET and on Fridays and days preceding Commission holidays before 16:00 CET will have the date of receipt as the notification date.
• Notifications arriving after 17:00 CET or 16:00 CET for Fridays and days preceding Commission holidays will be dealt with the following working day, which will accordingly be considered the notification date.

Submissions delivered by hand or sent by registered post:

• Paper or electronic submissions sent by registered post should be addressed to the Commission, DG Competition, Foreign Subsidies Registry, 1049 Brussels (Belgium). Addressing documents to other Commission departments may result in delays.
• Paper submissions delivered by hand should be addressed to the Commission, DG Competition, Foreign Subsidies Registry and should be brought at the Commission’s Central Mail at Avenue de Bourget/Bourgetlaan 1, 1140 Brussels (Belgium) every working day between 7:00 CET and 16:30 CET. 
• Electronic submissions delivered by hand can be brought to the Foreign Subsidies Registry of DG Competition at 1 Place Madou, 1210 Brussels (Belgium) during the following working hours: from Monday to Thursday from 9:00 CET to 12:00 CET and 14:00 CET to 17:00 CET and on Fridays and days preceding Commission holidays from 9:00 CET o 12 CET and 14:00 CET to 16:00 CET.

Electronic submissions delivered by hand or sent by registered post

• Transmissions of over 10 gigabytes in size may be put on external storage devices, such as, USB, CD, or DVD, or hard disk drives formatted in Microsoft Windows-compatible, uncompressed data in a USB 2.0 or 3.0 external enclosure. The documents must be digitally signed with a QES. The external storage devices may be hand delivered or sent by registered post to the address mentioned above.
• Transmissions of under 10 gigabytes in size may be delivered or sent by using external storage devices only if the Commission exceptionally agrees that other means than digital means of transmission may be used (e.g. if EU Send is not available). These documents must be digitally signed with a QES.

Paper submissions delivered by hand or sent by registered post

Exceptionally, if the Commission agrees that submitting documents digitally and signing them with a QES as required under article 25 of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1441 is not feasible, a paper submission may be hand delivered or sent by registered post to the address mentioned above. In this case, the following must be submitted:

• a hand signed paper copy of the complete submission;
• two digital copies of the full submission in external storage devices for information (not signed);
• a hand signed declaration stating that the signed paper copy and the digital copies are identical; and
• power of Attorney, if relevant.

Prior to delivery, the law firm or the legal representative of the notifying company must call the Foreign Subsidies Registry at +32 2 296.55.77 to give an estimated delivery time and the name of the individual who will be making the delivery along with a description of the items to be delivered (number of envelopes, packages or boxes).

To be considered valid, the notification form (FS-CO), power of attorney (PoA) for the purposes of a notification and commitments offered by the undertaking under investigation must be signed using a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) complying with the requirements set out in Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (the “eIDAS Regulation”). Other types of electronic signatures, such as scanned signatures or Advanced Electronic Signatures as defined in the eIDAS Regulation that do not meet the requirements of QES are not accepted. For more information regarding QES, please see Commission’s Communication C(2023)4749 of 12 July 2023.

Multiple signees can affix their signatures to a document using their own QES. They should however not make any other modification to the document because such modifications can supersede or compromise the previous signature. Since the Commission cannot offer guidance to stakeholders on the optimal use of diverse commercial solutions, stakeholders are encouraged to seek direct assistance as needed.

For more information on electronic signatures, please see here.

Only paper submissions delivered by hand to the Commission or sent by registered post can be hand signed.

For notifications, please make submissions in line with Article 25 and Annex I of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1441 of 10 July 2023.

Templates

• Notification Form as a service to stakeholders, in addition to the adopted Implementing Regulation, we include the WORD version for the notification form FS-CO. Please note that this is not an official text (only that published in the Official Journal is).
• Model power of attorney for notifications
• Template for table for turnover data for notifications
• Template for contact details for competitors
• Template for listing the supporting documents attached to the notification form FS-CO

Notifications must be drafted in one of the official languages of the Union, as specified in Article 4 (3) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1441 of 10 July 2023.

For more information about the language regime of the Union, please consult Languages, multilingualism, language rules | European Union (europa.eu)

Contact

For queries, please contact comp-fsr-registryec [dot] europa [dot] eu (comp-fsr-registry[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
In all your correspondence, please specify the case number and the name of the case.

If you want to send documents on Public procurement procedures to the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, please use this link EUSendWeb PROD.

Privacy statement

• Privacy statement relating to the application of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation
   

Commission holidays

• Holidays in 2023 - Official Journal C 201I, 28.05.2021
• Holidays in 2024 - Official Journal C 440/15, 21.11.2022