CHAPTER II

PROTECTED DESIGNATIONS OF ORIGIN AND GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
SECTION 5

Amendments and cancellation

Scrutiny of a cancellation
Article 23
1
If the Commission has not rejected the request of cancellation in accordance with Article 22(3), it shall communicate the cancellation to the Member State or the third-country authorities or the producers concerned established in the third country in question and shall invite him to file observations within two months from the issuance date of such communication. Any observations received within this two months period shall be communicated, where applicable, to the author of the request of cancellation.
In the course of the scrutiny of a cancellation, the Commission shall request the parties to submit comments, if appropriate, within a period of two months from the issuance date of such request, on the communications received from the other parties.
2
If the Member State or the third-country authorities or the applicant established in the third country in question or the author of a request of cancellation files no observations in response, or does not respect the time periods, the Commission decides upon the cancellation.
3
Any decision to cancel the designation of origin or geographical indication concerned shall be taken by the Commission on the basis of the evidence available to it. It shall consider whether compliance with the product specification for a wine sector product covered by a protected designation of origin or geographical indication is no longer possible or can no longer be guaranteed, particularly if the conditions laid down in Article 35 of Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 are no longer fulfilled or may no longer be fulfilled in the near future.
Such decision on cancellation shall be notified to the author of the request of cancellation and to the Member State or the third-country authorities or the applicant established in the third country in question.
4
In the event of multiple requests of cancellation, following a preliminary examination of one or more such requests of cancellation, it may not be possible to accept to continue to protect a designation or origin or geographical indication, in which case the Commission may suspend the other cancellation procedures. In this case the Commission shall inform the other authors of the requests of cancellation of any decision affecting them which was taken in the course of the procedure.
Where a protected designation of origin or geographical indication is cancelled, cancellation procedures which have been suspended shall be deemed to be closed and the authors of the request of cancellation concerned shall be duly informed.
5
When a cancellation takes effect, the Commission shall delete the name from the Register.