L 123/18 Official Journal of the European Union 27.4.2004 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 773/2004 of 7 April 2004 relating to the conduct of proceedings by the Commission pursuant to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on compe- tition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty ('), and in particular Article 33 thereof, After consulting the Advisory Committee on Restrictive Prac- tices and Dominant Positions, Whereas: 1 Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 empowers the Commission to regulate certain aspects of proceedings for the applica- tion of Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty. It is necessary to lay down rules concerning the initiation of proceed- ings by the Commission as well as the handling of complaints and the hearing of the parties concerned. According to Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, national courts are under an obligation to avoid taking decisions which could run counter to decisions envisaged by the Commission in the same case. According to Article 11(6) of that Regulation, national competition authori- ties are relieved from their competence once the Commission has initiated proceedings for the adoption of a decision under Chapter III of Regulation (EC) No 1/ 2003. In this context, it is important that courts and competition authorities of the Member States are aware of the initiation of proceedings by the Commission. The Commission should therefore be able to make public its decisions to initiate proceedings. Before taking oral statements from natural or legal persons who consent to be interviewed, the Commission should inform those persons of the legal basis of the interview and its voluntary nature. The persons inter- viewed should also be informed of the purpose of the interview and of any record which may be made. In order to enhance the accuracy of the statements, the persons interviewed should also be given an opportunity to correct the statements recorded. Where information gathered from oral statements is exchanged pursuant to Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, that informa- tion should only be used in evidence to impose sanc- tions on natural persons where the conditions set out in that Article are fulfilled. () OJ L1, 4.1.2003, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 411/2004 (O] L 68, 6.3.2004, p. 1). (4) Pursuant to Article 23(1)(d) of Regulation (EC) No 1/ 2003 fines may be imposed on undertakings and asso- ciations of undertakings where they fail to rectify within the time limit fixed by the Commission an incorrect, incomplete or misleading answer given by a member of their staff to questions in the course of inspections. It is therefore necessary to provide the undertaking concerned with a record of any explanations given and to establish a procedure enabling it to add any rectifica- tion, amendment or supplement to the explanations given by the member of staff who is not or was not authorised to provide explanations on behalf of the undertaking. The explanations given by a member of staff should remain in the Commission file as recorded during the inspection. Complaints are an essential source of information for detecting infringements of competition rules. It is impor- tant to define clear and efficient procedures for handling complaints lodged with the Commission. In order to be admissible for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, a complaint must contain certain specified information. In order to assist complainants in submitting the neces- sary facts to the Commission, a form should be drawn up. The submission of the information listed in that form should be a condition for a complaint to be treated as a complaint as referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003. Natural or legal persons having chosen to lodge a complaint should be given the possibility to be asso- ciated closely with the proceedings initiated by the Commission with a view to finding an infringement. However, they should not have access to business secrets or other confidential information belonging to other parties involved in the proceedings. Complainants should be granted the opportunity of expressing their views if the Commission considers that there are insufficient grounds for acting on the complaint. Where the Commission rejects a complaint on the grounds that a competition authority of a Member State is dealing with it or has already done so, it should inform the complainant of the identity of that authority.