Optional exchange of information
Article 16
1. The competent authorities of the Member States may forward to each other, without prior request, by means of spontaneous exchange, any information necessary to ensure the correct application of legislation on excise duties of which they are aware and which exchange is not covered by Article 15. To that end, they may use the computerised system where the system is capable of processing such information. 2. An authority which has forwarded information to another authority under paragraph 1 may request that other authority to provide feedback on the follow-up action taken by it on the basis of the information provided. If such a request is made, the other authority shall, without prejudice to the rules on secrecy and data protection applicable in its Member State, send such feedback as soon as possible, unless doing so would impose a disproportionate administrative burden on it. 3. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine: (a) the structure and content of the mutual administrative assistance documents to cover the most common types of information referred to in paragraph 1; (b) the rules and procedures relating to the exchanges of the mutual administrative document. The Commission may also adopt implementing acts to determine the structure and content of the feedback referred to in paragraph 2. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 35(2).