Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/331 of 24 February 2021 on the reporting of abuses committed by commercial intermediaries providing application services for travel authorisation under Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 of the European Parliament and of the Council

1 The reporting of abuse by a commercial intermediary shall be made using a form containing the information and fulfilling the technical requirements set out in points 1 to 7 of the Annex.

2 It shall be possible for the form to be completed in any of the official languages of the Union.

3 Before submitting the form, applicants shall be requested to provide confirmation of their having understood and consented to the general conditions applicable to the submission of a report on abuse, including that the applicant should not provide any personal data in his/her report, and the purposes for which the information provide shall be used, as set out in point 7 of the Annex.

4 Once submitted, the form shall automatically be sent to the ETIAS Central Unit.

The limitations on the number and size of additional files that may be uploaded shall be set out in the technical specifications referred to in Article 73(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240.

1 A notification of the receipt of the report of the abuse shall automatically appear on the screen of the applicant. The applicant shall be offered the possibility to save locally or print the acknowledgment of receipt.

2 Notifications shall at least include the following: (a) acknowledgement of receipt of the report and confirmation of the date and time at which the form was submitted (b) a reminder of all relevant information in relation to submitting an application for a travel authorisation as referred to in Article 71 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240; (c) information that the report of abuse shall be used to assist the monitoring and improving of the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. By contrast, the reporting facility is not intended to provide remedies in individual cases and is not a substitute for the pursuit of any claims in administrative, civil or criminal law that may be provided for under the applicable national law.

1 The ETIAS Central Unit shall: (a) monitor, process and analyse all reports of abuses; (b) publish on the dedicated public website and in the application for mobile devices relevant information in order to prevent abuses.

2 Once a year, the ETIAS Central Unit shall submit a report to the Commission, which shall at least include: (a) an anonymised description of the cases of abuse reported, including similarities between the cases, recurrences, trends and characteristics; (b) an overview of the actions taken to adapt the information to the general public and applicants.

The form to report abuses shall be designed and implemented to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, availability, protection of personal data and non-repudiation of transactions as referred to in the Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2017/46 . Its technical and organisational implementation shall meet the requirements of the European Travel Information and Authorisation System’s security plan, referred in Article 59(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240, and shall comply with the rules on data protection and security applicable to the public website and the application for mobile devices referred to in Article 16(10) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.