French Intellectual Property Code
In forceI.-When a party relies on a secret protected by law, it shall indicate by letter, at the time of their communication to the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique, the information, documents or parts of documents that it considers to involve a secret protected by law and shall request, on grounds that it specifies for each of them, their classification in a confidential annex. It shall provide separately a non-confidential version of these documents and a summary of the elements for which it requests classification. Where appropriate, it shall designate the undertakings in respect of which confidentiality would be likely to apply.
When information, documents or parts of documents likely to involve a secret protected by law are communicated to the authority by a person other than the one likely to rely on this secret and that person has not made a request for classification, the rapporteur invites that person to submit, if he so wishes, within a time limit that he sets, a request for classification in a confidential annex in accordance with the requirements of the previous paragraph.
II.-.The information, documents or parts of documents for which a request for classification has not been submitted are deemed not to involve a secret protected by law, in particular business secrecy, which the parties could rely on.
The chairman of the authority shall give notice to the person concerned of the classification in the confidential annex of the information, documents or parts of documents considered by him to involve a secret protected by law. The documents in question are removed from the file or some of their references are blacked out. The non-confidential version of the documents and a summary thereof will be added to the file.
The chairman of the authority may refuse to classify all or part of the documents if the request has not been made in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of this article, or if it has been made after the time limits laid down by virtue of the second paragraph, or if it is manifestly unfounded. The document shall then be returned to the party that produced it.
III.-When the rapporteur considers that a document classified as confidential is necessary for the proceedings, he shall inform the person who requested its classification by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. If this person objects, within the time limit set by the rapporteur, to the document being used in the proceedings, he shall refer the matter to the chairman of the authority. If the Chairman upholds the objection, the document is returned to the party that produced it. Otherwise, the chairman authorises the use of the document by the rapporteur and its communication to the parties for whom the document is necessary for the exercise of their rights. The parties concerned may only use the document, which remains confidential under the law, in the context of the proceedings before the authority and any appeals against the authority's decisions.
When a party considers that a document classified as confidential is necessary for the exercise of its rights, it may request that it be disclosed or consulted by submitting a reasoned request to the rapporteur. The rapporteur informs the person who requested the classification of the document by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. If the latter objects, within the time limit set by the rapporteur, to the document being disclosed to the party making the request, he or she shall refer the matter to the chairman of the authority. If the Chairman upholds the objection, the document is returned to the party that produced it. Otherwise, the chairman authorises the document to be communicated to or consulted by the party that made the request and, where applicable, by other parties for whom the document is necessary for the exercise of their rights. The parties concerned may only use this document, which remains covered by the secrecy protected by law, in the context of the proceedings before the authority and any appeals against the authority's decisions.
