a) Principles 

The primary object of the appeal proceedings is to review the decision under appeal in a judicial manner (Art. 12(2) RPBA 2020). In view of this primary object, Art. 12(2) RPBA 2020 provides that a party's appeal case has to be directed to the facts, objections, evidence and requests on which the decision under appeal was based.

At the first level of the convergent approach, the rule according to Art. 12(4) RPBA 2020, first sentence, RPBA 2020 is that any part of a party's appeal case

– that does not meet the above-mentioned requirements of Art. 12(2) RPBA 2020, and

– for which the party has not demonstrated that this part was admissibly raised and maintained in the proceedings leading to the decision under appeal 

is to be regarded as an amendment of the party's case.

Accordingly, and as pointed out by the Legal Board in J 14/19, the decision under appeal is the point of reference for assessing under Art. 12(4) RPBA 2020 whether any part of the appeal case is an amendment.