eRFI - Frequently Asked Questions

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The domain found in the sender email of the welcome email should be @ec.europa.eu. In the welcome email, the link to access eRFI should be https://erfi.ec.europa.eu/erfi.external?q=<a unique identifier>. If one of these is not correct please do not click on the link and contact us by email at COMP-ERFI-SUPPORTec [dot] europa [dot] eu (COMP-ERFI-SUPPORT[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).

• To increase the confidentiality of your answers, the Commission does not send request for information to functional mailboxes (like info@, customer-support@, etc.) nor to generic emails (like @gmail., @yahoo.).
• Request for information are sent only to personal company emails. This way we reduce the risk that many people see or modify your answers.
• In addition, the system use the official European Commission EU Login platform, used to secure all internal and external information system of the Commission. The Commission does not know your password nor can change it for you, you are the only one who can change the password and is your responsibility to keep it secret.
• eRFI use the HTTPS standard encrypted protocol to secure the transfer of data from your local client to our internal servers. Data is stored in encrypted databases within the Commission and access to these servers is restricted only to Commission staff or person in possession of the Belgium security clearance certificate.
• All attempts to access your answers are recorded for audit purposes. If a leak of information occur we can restore the history of access and retrieve all EU Login accounts who attempt to read or modify the data.
• Your un-submitted answers and documents are not visible inside the system and are not used by our internal market investigation tools.

No, only EU Login accounts can be used.

No, only EU Login accounts can be used.

Yes. However, you must use one which eRFI is able to recognise and link to a particular RFI. eRFI saves and recognises the email addresses of the following users:

• all recipients of the welcome email
• in case of re-assignment, the new primary addressee of the RFI
• in case of collaboration, all collaborators

If the email linked to your EU Login account is different from the one used by eRFI to send the welcome or collaboration email, then your email is not recognised by the system and eRFI does not consider you an authorised user.

To solve this issue please change the email address of your EU Login account or create a new EU Login account using the email address that is recognised by eRFI. See here how to change the email of your EU Login account.

Privacy policy for Competition investigations

The contact details of the Data Protection Officer: data-protection-officerec [dot] europa [dot] eu (data-protection-officer[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

The power to request information is an evidence gathering tool which can be deployed in behavioral investigations, merger cases and market studies. Response to RFIs can be voluntary or compulsory meaning that noncompliance is sanctioned. You will find information specific to the RFI addressed to your company in the legal basis screen, the first screen that appears after accessing eRFI.

The Commission may address any undertaking or association of undertakings which might hold relevant information, irrespective of its involvement in the suspected infringement or merger. During the investigation the Commission can reach out by means of addressing one or multiple RFIs to different actors such as competitors, customers, trade associations, market experts, regulatory authorities, member states, national competition authorities etc.

The welcome email is typically sent to several employees within the same organisation to ensure that the RFI will be dealt with promptly. The first person to login becomes the primary "Principal" Collaborator for that RFI and the access of the other recipients of the welcome email is interrupted in order to protect the confidentiality of any draft answers. As primary collaborator, you can respond to the RFI yourself, re-assign it to a colleague who is better-placed to answer, or invite collaborators to assist you. 

• If you believe you are wrongly indicated as collaborator for a particular RFI, you can re-assign it to a colleague who is better-placed to answer. Until the new colleague accesses eRFI and accepts the legal basis, you remain the principal collaborator.
• During re-assignment, any draft answers (including confidential information and business secrets) are preserved and will be accessible by the new primary collaborator. It is therefore your responsibility to re-assign the RFI to the correct person in order to preserve confidentiality. Please make sure the person to which you are re-assigning the RFI is available and has sufficient time to answer given that the deadline remains unchanged.
• When the re-assignment is complete you will not be able to access the system anymore.

• If you are a Collaborator and need help from colleagues to answer specific questions or sections of questions, you can invite colleagues at a time as Collaborators.
• Collaborators first have to acknowledge they have read the legal basis and sign the non-disclosure agreement, if applicable. Collaborators get access to the entire RFI. They can make changes and you can see their changes as they happen. In addition, Collaborators can ask the Commission Case team for clarifications on specific questions and export a copy of the answers before they are submitted to the Commission.
• All Collaborators have the overall responsibility to respond to the RFI and only they can sign and submit the final responses, request a deadline extension and request to opt-out from answering to the RFI. You are also able to remove and add collaborators at any time prior to submission. The access of removed collaborators is interrupted immediately, even if they are accessing the RFI.

Please do not access the RFI since the questions and any attachments provided by the Commission may be confidential. If you have accessed the RFI and you are not the intended recipient you must not copy any questions or attachment or disclose the contents to any other person. Please reply to the invitation email and explain your situation. 

If you are a Collaborator you can request a deadline extension by clicking on the deadline date in Step 3. You can suggest a new deadline and you will have to properly motivate your request. A member of the case team will respond to your request promptly and you will be informed by an email notification.

In addition, you can always invite colleagues as collaborators to assist you.

Yes. The language of your response is selected in the "Contact details" screen and can be changed there. Please make sure your answers correspond to the language you selected in the "Contact details" screen.

Yes. Within eRFI you can request clarifications, deadline extensions and to opt-out in your native language. We will try to reply in your native language or in one of the working/procedural languages of the Commission (English, French, German).

There are several reasons why a collaborator cannot access the RFI:

• The Principal Collaborator/ or other Collaborators has entered incorrect email address to invite the Collaborator. The Principal Collaborator must delete the wrongly introduced collaborator immediately to preserve the confidentiality of the questions and answers of the RFI.
• The Collaborator has not created an EU Login account. An EU Login account is necessary for everyone to access eRFI.
• The Collaborator created an EU Login account using an email address other than the one used by eRFI in the invitation email received by the Collaborator. The Collaborator must change the email address in his/her EU Login account to match the one used by eRFI. See here how to change the email of your EU Login account.
• The Principal Collaborator removed that particular Collaborator. When this happens the access of the Collaborator is interrupted with immediate effect, even if the Collaborator is using eRFI.
• All Collaborators can submitted the final responses to the Commission. When this happens the access of all Collaborators is withdrawn.

When the Principal Collaborator removes a particular collaborator, the access of that Collaborator is interrupted with immediate effect, even if the Collaborator is using eRFI.

Use the "Clear answer" button for each answer you would like to delete. 

• If you answer a question and then you decide to skip it, the answer and any attachments will remain available in case you change your mind. You can therefore un-skip a question and continue drafting.
• All answers and attachments of skipped questions are deleted when the RFI responses are submitted to the Commission. The Commission's case team will not have access to any draft questions, including the answers and attachments of skipped questions. 

• To make the questionnaire as short and relevant to your organisation as possible, sometimes we use conditional logic, meaning that your answer in a particular (screening) question decides the sections that will follow.
• If you have answered parts of a section and this section later disappears as a result of changing your answer to the initial screening question, your answers will remain available in case you change your mind. Therefore, if this section re-appears it will contain your draft answers and you can continue drafting.
• All answers and attachments of hidden section are deleted when the RFI responses are submitted to the Commission. The Commission's case team will not have access to any draft questions, including the answers and attachments of hidden questions.

• To make the questionnaire as short and relevant to your organisation as possible, sometimes we use conditional logic, meaning that your answer in a particular (screening) question decides the sections that will follow.
• It is possible that a collaborator changed the screening question and causing the section in which you have been working to disappear. Please note that your draft answers remain available and you will see your answers if this section re-appears.
• All answers and attachments of hidden section are deleted when the RFI responses are submitted to the Commission. The Commission's case team will not have access to any draft questions, including the answers and attachments of hidden questions.

• Any collaborator can temporarily freeze the questionnaire at any time *in the Preview step) to be able to review a stable version before submitting the final answers to the Commission.
• When the questionnaire is frozen, it becomes read-only for everyone who has access, including the principal collaborator and any collaborators. Questions and attachments cannot be edited. This action is reversible, after freezing the questionnaire, the user can go back to draft mode.
• Collaborators who have not finished drafting, should alert the other Collaborator without delay to avoid that he/she submits to the Commission incomplete answers. Questions submitted to the Commission can no longer be changed. 

• Tables should be read horizontally. Depending on how the questionnaire is designed, some tables may allow for respondents to introduce more rows and answer the questions contained in the table for each new row.
• You can insert new rows if you see a green plus icon (+) after the table. You will be able to remove any manually introduced rows by clicking on the red minus icon (-) on the left hand side of each row. 

Select "Other" if available and specify your answer. Otherwise use the "ask for clarification" button to reach out to the Commission's case team for further information.

Choose the option that is mostly relevant in your case. Otherwise use the "ask for clarification" button to reach out to the Commission's case team for further information.

• Text answers are sometimes limited in characters to facilitate our data analysis. Please try to be concise and avoid repetition.
• If your answer is still too large please draft it in a MS Word document or PDF and attach it to the question as supporting document. 

Your RFI supports partial submission and sections marked with a paper plane are already submitted to the Commission. Please note that once a section is submitted to the Commission, it can no longer be changed. 

• Any of the Collaborators can temporarily freeze the questionnaire at any time to be able to review a stable version before submitting the final answers to the Commission. This is done by navigating to Step 4 "Review & Send" or by clicking the "preview my answers" button of Step 3.
• When the questionnaire is frozen, it becomes read-only for everyone who has access, including the principal addressee and any collaborators. Questions and attachments cannot be edited. This action is reversible, after freezing the questionnaire, the user can go back to draft mode.
• Collaborators who have not finished drafting, should alert the principal addressee without delay to avoid that the principal addressee submits to the Commission incomplete answers. Questions submitted to the Commission can no longer be changed. 

Yes. If you have uploaded a supporting document to one question, you can re-use it for another question. In the new question click on "Supporting documents" and select the previously uploaded document from the "Attach existing file" list. Reusing supporting documents in multiple questions avoids duplication of files and it is therefore a highly recommended practice.

• Yes, within the "Supporting documents" dialogue box, every document can be deleted by clicking on the red X icon next to it. Please note that if the document has been re-used in other questions (not re-uploaded but selected from the "Attach existing file" list) it will be preserved in the other questions.
• In addition, by clearing an answer, both the content of the answer and any supporting documents are deleted.

You can upload maximum 5 file per question, each not exceeding 2Mb in size. Most common file types are accepted example: PDF, images (PNG, TIFF, JPEG, BMP), MS Office (DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, MSG, etc.), OpenOffice (ODS, ODT, etc.).