Validation procedures
Article 52
1. Member States shall apply, maintain, review, and ensure compliance with validation procedures established under national law. These validation procedures shall, at a minimum, include the business rules listed in paragraph 2, to be supplemented with additional business rules based on risk management, as included in the national plan for the implementation of the validation system, in accordance with Article 109(8) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009. 2. The following business rules shall be implemented by all Member States when validating data recorded under Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009: (a) there shall be an automatic verification of all data submission deadlines set out in Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 and in this Regulation; (b) data validation shall be performed to ensure that vessel position data is transmitted to the FMC in accordance with the time intervals specified in Article 4 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1766 ( 9 ) and in Articles 23 of this Regulation; (c) vessel position data shall be cross-checked: (1) with fishing logbook data to ensure that at least one logbook entry exists for each calendar day in which a vessel is absent from port; (2) against AIS data in order to detect any discrepancies in vessel location or activity; (d) vessel position data shall be analysed to determine when vessels enter fishing effort areas or fishing restricted areas and identify vessels whose speed and movements indicate that they may be engaged in unauthorised fishing activities within the fishing restricted area; (e) logbook data relating to fishing areas, fishing effort, fishing gear, and catches shall be cross-checked with applicable fishing licences and fishing authorisations, including authorisations issued under Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 10 ) and other fishing authorisations referred to in Article 7a of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, to detect and investigate any inconsistency; (f) the return to port declaration shall be cross-checked with the prior notifications of arrival to ensure that, where legally required, a corresponding prior notification exists for each declared return to port; (g) the transmission time of the fishing logbook information, including any corrections thereof, shall be cross-checked against the vessel position data to verify that the master transmitted the data before entering port, or, for fishing vessels under 12 metres length overall, at the latest while in port and before landing starts; (h) catch data for each species, including the relevant geographical area in which the catches were taken, that are registered in fishing logbooks and landing declarations shall be cross-checked to identify and investigate potential data inconsistencies; for that cross-check, the relevant geographical area shall be the catch area, detailed at least to the level required for monitoring quota uptake and fishing effort; (i) catch data for each species, including the relevant geographical area in which the catches were taken, that are registered in landing declarations, sales notes and, where applicable, in take-over declarations and transport documents, shall be cross-checked to identify and investigate potential data inconsistencies; for that cross-check, the relevant geographical area shall be the catch area, detailed at least to the level required by the traceability rules in Article 58(5)(e) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009; when Member States use sales notes for catch reporting under Article 33(1) and (3) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, the catch area shall meet the minimum detail necessary for monitoring quota uptake and fishing effort; (j) catch data for each species registered in fishing logbooks, landing declarations and transhipment declarations shall be cross-checked to identify and investigate potential data inconsistencies and breaches of the permitted margins of tolerance referred to in Articles 14 and 21 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009; and (k) transhipment declarations shall be cross-checked with applicable fishing authorisations to ensure that vessels are authorised to engage in transhipment activities. 3. When quantities of fishery products from a single fishing trip are reported in multiple landing declarations or transhipment declarations, or when quantities of fishery products from a single landing are reported in multiple sales notes, transport documents, or take-over declarations, the validation procedures referred to in paragraph 1 shall account for this by using any available unique fishing trip identification number. 4. The Commission may, at the request of one or more Member States, develop technical guidelines for data validation.