Exclusion and objection
Article 107
1. The members of the Board of Appeal shall not take part in any appeal proceedings if they have any personal interest therein, if they have previously been involved as representatives of one of the parties to the proceedings or if they participated in the adoption of the decision under appeal. 2. If, for one of the reasons listed in paragraph 1 or for any other reason, a member of the Board of Appeal considers that he or she should not take part in any appeal proceeding, he or she shall inform the Board of Appeal accordingly. 3. Any party to the appeal proceedings may object to any member of the Board of Appeal on any of the grounds given in paragraph 1, or if the member is suspected of partiality. Any such objection shall not be admissible if, while being aware of a reason for objecting, the party to the appeal proceedings has taken a procedural step. No objection may be based on the nationality of members. 4. The Board of Appeal shall decide as to the action to be taken in the cases specified in paragraphs 2 and 3 without the participation of the member concerned. For the purposes of taking this decision, the member concerned shall be replaced on the Board of Appeal by his or her alternate.