The purpose of this Form RS. This Form RS specifies the information that submitting parties must provide when making a reasoned submission for a pre-notification referral under Article 4(4) or (5) of Chapter IV of Protocol 4 to the Agreement between the EFTA States on the establishment of a Surveillance Authority and a Court of Justice (hereinafter referred to as the 'Surveillance and Court Agreement'). Your attention is drawn to the act referred to in point 1 of Annex XIV to the EEA Agreement and to Chapters IV and V of Protocol 4 to the Surveillance and Court Agreement. The text of these acts, as well as other relevant documents, can be found on the EFTA Surveillance Authority's web site. Your attention is also drawn to the corresponding provisions of the European Union.1 It is recognised that the information requested in this Form RS can be substantial. However, experience has shown that, depending on the specific characteristics of the case, not all information is always necessary for an adequate reasoned submission. Accordingly, if you consider that any particular information requested by this Form RS may not be necessary for the reasoned submission in your case, you are encouraged to ask the EFTA Surveillance Authority to dispense with the obligation to provide certain information. See point 1.3(e) of this introductory part for more details. The possibility to engage in prior contacts is a service offered by the EFTA Surveillance Authority to submitting parties on a voluntary basis in order to prepare the formal submission of this Form RS. Prior contacts are extremely valuable to both the submitting parties and the EFTA Surveillance Authority in determining the precise amount of information required in a reasoned submission and, in the majority of cases, will result in a significant reduction of the information required. Accordingly, parties are encouraged to consult the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the relevant EFTA State/s on a voluntary basis regarding the adequacy of the scope and type of information on which they intend to base their reasoned submission. The parties may refer to the «Best Practices on the conduct of EC merger control proceedings» of the Commission's Directorate-General for Competition («DG Competition») as published on DG Competition's website and updated from time to time, which provide guidance on prior contacts and the preparation of notifications and reasoned submissions. In the case of a merger within the meaning of the act referred to in point 1 of...
