The President of the European Patent Office, having regard to Articles 5(2) and 7(2) of the Rules relating to Fees, has decided as follows:

Article 1

In order to align the automatic debiting procedure with new requirements under revised Rule 69.1(a) PCT, point 6.2 AAD has been amended as follows:

"6.2 Except as otherwise provided under points 8 and 10 below, payments under the automatic debiting procedure in respect of international applications before the EPO as receiving Office, International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority are considered to have been received

(a) subject to point 6.2(b) to (e) below, for any fee to be paid within a specific period:

on the last day of the period for paying the fee;

[…]

(e) for the fee for preliminary examination (Rule 58 PCT, Rule 158(2) EPC) and the handling fee (Rule 57 PCT) (points 3.3(m) and (n) above):

on the date of receipt of the demand for preliminary examination."

Points II(m) and (n) of Annex A.2 to the ADA have been amended as follows:

"II. In respect of international applications before the EPO acting as receiving Office, ISA or IPEA, automatic debiting is allowed, in particular, for the following:

[…]

(m) and (n) Fee for preliminary examination (Rule 58 PCT, Rule 158(2) EPC) and handling fee (Rule 57 PCT)

For international preliminary examination, the handling fee and the preliminary examination fee must be paid direct to the EPO as IPEA. The amount of the preliminary examination fee is set by the EPO (Article 2(1), item 19 RFees). The handling fee is laid down in the PCT Schedule of Fees, published by the International Bureau. Both fees are automatically debited on the date of receipt of the demand for preliminary examination. The fee amounts payable are those applicable on the date of payment.

International preliminary examination starts immediately upon fulfilment of the requirements under Rule 69.1(a) PCT, unless the applicant expressly requests to postpone the start of the international preliminary examination until the expiration of the applicable time limit under Rule 54bis.1(a) PCT

The automatic debiting procedure takes account of circumstances in which the fees are reduced, so only the reduced amounts are debited.

The handling fee is reduced by 90% under the same conditions as for the international filing fee, and the fee for international preliminary examination by 75% under the same conditions as for the international search fee.

[…]"

Article 3

Entry into force

This decision enters into force on 1 July 2019.

Done at Munich, 22 May 2019

António CAMPINOS

President