Initial request to the manufacturer or importer
Article 4
1. The initiating Member State or the Commission shall inform the manufacturer and importer of the product of its view that a tobacco product might have a characterising flavour and request the manufacturer or the importer to provide its assessment. 2. The manufacturer or importer shall reply to and submit its written observations to the request within a period of four weeks from the receipt of the request referred to in paragraph 1, or by another date agreed with the initiating Member State or the Commission as applicable. In its reply, the manufacturer or importer shall identify, to the extent possible, any other Member States in which the same product has been placed on the market. The manufacturer shall also set out the views of its parent company, where applicable. The importer shall also set out the views of the manufacturer. 3. The manufacturer or importer shall, in its reply under paragraph 2, indicate if it considers that same products placed on the market in other Member States have different flavours in one or more of the Member States concerned. In such a case, the manufacturer or importer shall set out the grounds upon which this claim is based.