Frequently Asked Questions

An EU Login account is mandatory to access eRFI. You are free to use any email address to create an EU Login account, but you must use a link to access a particular RFI.

You might have received this link in the following situations:

1. You are the main recipient or in CC of the welcome email
2. You have been indicated as the new addressee (re-assignment)
3. You have been invited as collaborator
4. The welcome email has been forwarded to you

In the last case (4), if you cannot access, someone else may have already accessed the RFI before you and is now Principal Addressee. Your tentative access will trigger a request notification to this Principal Addressee. You will be able to access only after the request is approved by the Principal Addressee. Please contact the person who forwarded you the email to verify whether the Principal Addressee has approved your request.

Please follow this link for details: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/cas/help.html

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-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.

• To increase the confidentiality of your answers, the Commission does not send request for information to generic emails (like @gmail., @yahoo.).
• 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, if you cannot access, please refer to “I cannot access eRFI, why?” paragraph.

The Commission needs to communicate with the real person who is able to represent his/her entity. The case team often needs to reach the respondent of an RFI by email or by phone. In addition, each email used in eRFI is filtered and generic email addresses like "info@" or "@gmail.com" are blocked.

https://ec.europa.eu/competition/general/data_protection_en.html

https://ec.europa.eu/competition/general/privacy_statement_competition_website.pdf

The contact details of the Data Protection Officer: data-protection-officer@ec.europa.eu

The power to request information is an evidence gathering tool which can be deployed in behavioural 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.

RFIs are sent in the context of a Commission investigation. If you believe that you are in no position to respond to a particular RFI, because, for instance, you are not active in the relevant market, you may ask to opt out providing a justification for your request. You cannot request to be excluded from any future RFI.

You can: Re-assign your RFI, answer questions, clear answers, upload documents, ask for clarifications to the European Commission Case team, request a deadline extension, opt-out from the RFI, invite collaborators and submit the RFI to the Commission.

You can: Answer questions, clear answers, upload documents, ask for clarifications to the European Commission Case team.

The welcome email is typically sent to several employees within the same organization to ensure that the RFI will be dealt with promptly. The first person to login becomes the primary "Principal" Addressee for that RFI and the access of the other recipients of the welcome email is subordinated to an authorization process by the Principal Addressee in order to protect the confidentiality of any draft answers. As Principal Addressee, 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.

• The Principal Addressee has the overall responsibility to respond to the RFI. If you believe you are wrongly indicated as Principal Addressee 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 Addressee. During re-assignment, any draft answers (including confidential information and business secrets) are preserved and will be accessible by the new Principal Addressee. 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. click for details
• If nobody accessed the RFI yet, you can simply forward the RFI to your colleague, if this person is not already in CC.

• If you are the Principal Addressee and need help from colleagues to answer specific questions or sections of questions, you can invite up to 20 colleagues 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.
• As the Principal Addressee of the RFI you have the overall responsibility to respond to the RFI and only you can sign and submit the final responses, request a deadline extension and request to opt-out from answering to the RFI. Within the twenty slots available for Collaborators, the Principal Addressee can 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.
• Sharing the RFI with Collaborators remains the responsibility of the Principal Addressee, particularly regarding confidentiality and collaboration with third parties. 

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 the Principal Addressee, 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.

There are several reasons why you might be un-authorized.

• The Principal Addressee removed you from the list of Collaborators. Please contact the Principal Addressee for more information.
• The Commission has disabled your access on this RFI.
• A recipient of the welcome email has accepted the Legal Basis and became the Principal Addressee. In that case the access of the other recipients of the welcome email is pending for approval. You can ask the recipients of the welcome email to accept your request to become a Collaborator if you wish to contribute or review

You can view the RFI in different languages, if a translation exists, using the language selector in the upper right corner. Viewing the RFI in a different language is temporary and does not change the language of your response. The language of your response remains the one chosen in the contact details screen and can be changed there.

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).

The currency is defined by the Commission and cannot be changed. Please convert any amounts in the currency requested in the RFI. Please use this page to convert amounts into Euros: https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/exchange_rates.html.

• If you are the Principal Addressee (the Principal Addressee has the overall responsibility to respond to the RFI) and need help from colleagues to answer specific questions or sections of questions, you can invite up to 20 colleagues at a time as Collaborators. Collaborators can make changes and you can see their changes as they happen. In addition, collaborators can ask the case team for clarifications on specific questions and export a copy of the answers before they are submitted to the Commission.
• Sharing the RFI with Collaborators remains the responsibility of the Principal Addressee, particularly regarding preserving confidentiality of the questions and answers and collaboration with third parties. 

There might be several reasons why a collaborator cannot access the RFI:

• The Principal Addressee has entered incorrect email address to invite the Collaborator. The Principal Addressee 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 (https://ecas.ec.europa.eu/cas/help.html) how to change the email of your EU Login account.
• Or the Principal Addressee must delete the previous invitation and create a new one with the correct email address, corresponding to the existing EU Login account.
• The Principal Addressee removed that particular Collaborator. When this happens the access of the Collaborator is interrupted with immediate effect, even if the Collaborator is using eRFI.
• The Principal Addressee reassigned the RFI to a new Addressee. The new Principal Addressee need to approve or reject the existing collaborators. You will receive a notification to inform you of the decision.

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

When the Principal Addressee navigates to step 4 "Preview & Send", all answers appear in PDF version for the Principal Addressee and the Collaborators. This gives the opportunity to the Principal Addressee to review a stable version of the responses before submitting them to the Commission. The Principal Addressee can still navigate back to step 3 "Questionnaire" to enable further modifications in the answers by him/herself and any Collaborators involved.

Regulation 1/2003 as well as the Merger Regulation empower the Commission to obtain all necessary information from undertakings and association of undertakings, and from persons controlling undertakings. In this respect, the Commission has the power to impose fines and periodic penalty payments for either the failure to supply information or the intentional or negligent submission of incorrect information. You will find further information in the Legal Basis of the particular RFI addressed to your organisation.

Technically, you can submit your responses even after the deadline, until the Commission has interrupted your access.

Please note that Regulation 1/2003 as well as the Merger Regulation empower the Commission to obtain all necessary information from undertakings and association of undertakings, and from persons controlling undertakings. In this respect, the Commission has the power to impose fines and periodic penalty payments for either the failure to supply information or the intentional or negligent submission of incorrect information. You will find further information in the legal basis of the particular RFI addressed to your organisation. 

The first screen of the RFI addressed to your organisation contains the Legal Basis. The same document typically mentions the purpose of the request and subject of the investigation. Indicating the Legal Basis and the purpose of the request allows the addressee to assess the scope of the duty to cooperate and at the same time to safeguard its rights of defence. In addition, it is possible that the questionnaire of an RFI as well as any attachments provided by the Commission contain confidential information and business secrets. In that case, the content of the RFI may not be disclosed to any third party and cannot be used for any purpose other than the proceedings referred to above.

Everyone who accesses an RFI must accept the Legal Basis and any Non-Disclosure Agreement contained therein, including the Principal Addressee and Collaborators, before accessing the questionnaire. 

The Commission needs to communicate with the real person who is able to represent his/her entity. The case team often needs to reach the respondent of an RFI by email or by phone. Your personal data are treated as per the Commission's privacy rules (https://ec.europa.eu/competition/general/data_protection_en.html).

The red asterisk means that the question is mandatory and you need to provide a valid answer to be able to submit your answers to the Commission. 

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.

• The Principal Addressee 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 Addressee and any collaborators. Questions and attachments cannot be edited. This action is reversible, after freezing the questionnaire, the Principal Addressee 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 by the Principal Addressee 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. 

Please use the "ask for clarification" button to reach out to the Commission's case team for further information. 

• Some questionnaires are designed to accept partial submission where individual sections can be submitted to the Commission. Please note that once a section is submitted to the Commission, it can no longer be changed.
• To see whether your RFI supports partial submission, in Step 4 "Preview and Send" click on Send. If partial submission is enabled, the system will give you the choice of selecting specific sections for submission. Alternatively you can ask the Commission for clarification.

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. 

• The Principal Addressee 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 "Preview & 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 Principal Addressee 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 by the Principal Addressee can no longer be changed. 

Once a section is submitted to the Commission, it can no longer be changed. During confidentiality negotiation you may raise confidentiality claims for parts of your answers.

Yes, you can upload supporting documents in all questions by clicking on "Supporting documents" for each specific question.

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.).

If you are the Principal Addressee, you can download all supporting documents and the answers by clicking on … in the "Preview and Send" before submitting the RFI.

The browsers in which eRFI has been tested and are therefore supported include:

-Microsoft Edge

-Apple Safari

-Google Chrome

-Mozilla Firefox

Only the desktop versions of the above browsers have been tested with eRFI. Tablet browsers should also work but they are neither tested nor supported.

Please fill in the minimum versions of the browser

The browsers in which eRFI has been tested and are therefore supported include:

-Microsoft Edge

-Apple Safari

-Google Chrome

-Mozilla Firefox

Only the desktop versions of the above browsers have been tested with eRFI. Tablet browsers should also work but they are neither tested nor supported.

No, eRFI does not support mobile devices yet.