4.3.4 Discretion under Article 12(4) RPBA 2020
This section has been updated to reflect case law and legislative changes up to 31 December 2023. For the previous version of this section please refer to the "Case Law of the Boards of Appeal", 10th edition (PDF). |
In many decisions, the boards, when exercising their discretion under Art. 12(4), second sentence, RPBA 2020, have relied, in addition to the criteria mentioned in that provision, on whether requests, facts, objections and evidence should have already been filed in the proceedings that led to the contested decision. In some cases, the boards have made reference to Art. 12(6) RPBA 2020 (T 291/21, T 3240/19, T 886/21) whereas in others they have made no such reference (T 121/20, T 864/20, T 1288/21). On occasion, they have also used slightly different wording, e.g. in T 218/20, T 121/20, T 3272/19 (first opportunity to respond/to file amendments/documents) and T 1085/20 (timely reaction).
These decisions are described in chapter V.A.4.3.7 together with the decisions in relation to Art. 12(6) RPBA 2020.