Following the European Commission’s adoption of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2399 dated 12 September 2024, beginning 3 October 2024 all customs applications for action (AFAs) must be submitted and managed electronically through the IP Enforcement Portal (IPEP) or through a national trader portal where such a portal is in place in the EU Member State.

National trader portals are currently available in Germany, Italy and Spain. For these countries with the dual-portal system, any amendment or extension request must be submitted through the same portal used for the initial application, whether national or IPEP.

National customs authorities will no longer accept paper forms, except in cases of technical failures affecting the IPEP or national portals. If these systems are down for at least 24 hours, applicants may complete and submit the required forms on paper. However, paper submissions must be approved by the competent customs authorities, and the information contained in such filings must be uploaded to the appropriate portal within seven working days from the electronic systems being back online.

Currently, the IPEP does not support digital signatures for filings, but this feature is expected to be implemented next.

Source: EUIPO website, EUR-Lex website