# Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs, Article 51: Opposition procedure

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

1. Within three months from the date of publication of the documents published under Article 50(2), the authorities ... of a third country, or a natural or legal person having a legitimate interest ... may lodge a notice of opposition with the Secretary of State.
...
A notice of opposition shall contain a declaration that the application might infringe the conditions laid down in this Regulation. A notice of opposition that does not contain this declaration is void.
The Secretary of State shall forward the notice of opposition to the authority or body that lodged the application without delay.
2. If a notice of opposition is lodged with the Secretary of State and is followed within two months by a reasoned statement of opposition, the Secretary of State shall check the admissibility of this reasoned statement of opposition.
3. Within two months after the receipt of an admissible reasoned statement of opposition, the Secretary of State shall invite the authority or person that lodged the opposition and the authority or body that lodged the application to engage in appropriate consultations for a reasonable period that shall not exceed three months.
The authority or person that lodged the opposition and the authority or body that lodged the application shall start such appropriate consultations without undue delay. They shall provide each other with the relevant information to assess whether the application for registration complies with the conditions of this Regulation. If no agreement is reached, this information shall also be provided to the Secretary of State.
At any time during these three months, the Secretary of State may, at the request of the applicant extend the deadline for the consultations by a maximum of three months.
4. Where, following the appropriate consultations referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article, the details published in accordance with Article 50(2) have been substantially amended, the Secretary of State shall repeat the scrutiny referred to in Article 50.
5. The notice of opposition, the reasoned statement of opposition and the related documents which are sent to the Secretary of State in accordance with paragraphs 1 to 4 of this Article shall be in one of the official languages of the Union.
6. In order to establish clear procedures and deadlines for opposition, the Secretary of State may make regulations complementing the rules of the opposition procedure.
The Secretary of State may make regulations laying down detailed rules on procedures, form and presentation of the oppositions. ...

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2012/1151/article/51 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2012-1151/article-51
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.