Revised practice directions give guidance to appellants

ECHA/NA/17/03

The Board of Appeal has adopted revised practice directions to guide parties involved in appeal proceedings.

Helsinki, 1 March 2017 – A number of changes to the existing practice directions, which were published in 2010, were necessary to take into account the recent amendments to the Board of Appeal’s Rules of Procedure, feedback from stakeholders and experience gained.

The revised practice directions provide detailed advice on the various stages of appeal proceedings, including new recommendations to avoid unnecessary or overly extensive submissions. In this manner, appeal proceedings should be simpler for those with no experience of appeal or legal proceedings. They should also be less costly, even for those appellants who opt to be represented by experienced legal practitioners.

The main changes are:

• Additional guidance on how to present procedural documents and what they should include
• The introduction of a recommended maximum number of pages for procedural documents
• Clarifications on when, and how many, copies of submissions are required (e.g. no copies are required if the document is less than five pages)
• The rules concerning confidentiality requests are clarified (e.g. considerations before submitting a request, and how and when to submit a request)
• Additional guidance on evidence (e.g. late evidence will usually not be accepted if it could have been submitted in the first submission of the party concerned)
• Brief guidance in cases where several appellants bring a single appeal

The revised practice directions enter into force on 1 March 2017 and are available on the Board of Appeal’s section of ECHA’s website in 23 official EU languages.