Information, documents or parts of documents for which an application for business secrecy protection has not been made are deemed not to involve business secrecy. The same applies to items relating to sales, market shares, offers or similar data that are more than five years old at the time of the decision on the application, unless, in exceptional cases, the general rapporteur decides otherwise.
As part of the investigation by the Competition Authority, the rapporteur examines, before the relevant items in the file are made accessible or communicated to the parties, the applications for protection of business secrets that have been made. The general rapporteur notifies the applicant of a decision to treat the information, documents or parts of documents in question as confidential. The pleadings are drawn up in accordance with this decision. The Reporter General may also reject the application in whole or in part if it has not been submitted in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of Article R. 463-13, if it has been submitted after the deadline set or if it is manifestly unfounded. In the event of rejection, it will notify the applicant of its decision.
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