After receipt of the request for confidentiality in accordance with Article 3 the competent authority shall, within a period not exceeding four months, examine the request and inform the applicant in writing of its decision. In the event of approval, the authority shall also communicate the registration number it has allocated to the product in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Annex. However, if there are exceptional reasons, the competent authority may inform the applicant in writing that an additional period of two months will be required for the examination of the request.

Any refusal to grant a request for confidentiality must include a statement of reasons; appeal procedures, together with their time limits, must be clearly explained to the applicant.