Where the administrative reference code or codes of one or more electronic administrative documents for which the requesting authority is searching are not known and the requesting authority believes another Member State to be the Member State of dispatch, the requesting authority may request a search to be carried out by the competent authority of another Member State for a list of electronic administrative documents under cover of which relevant movements take place.

For that purpose, the requesting authority shall send a ‘Common request’ document, as set out in Table 4 of Annex I, to the requested authority. The request shall state the relevant search criteria and include any information which supports the selection of those criteria.

The requested authority shall respond to requests made in accordance with paragraph 1 by returning a list of electronic administrative documents matching the search criteria selected in accordance with the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, identified by their administrative reference codes using the ‘List of e-AD as a result of a general query’ document, as set out in Table 5 of Annex I.

Where no document meets the search criteria selected in accordance with the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, or the number of administrative reference codes meeting the selected search criteria is greater than 99, the requested authority shall send the requesting authority a ‘Refusal of common request’ document, as set out in Table 6 of Annex I.