{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/restrictive-practices-court-rules-1976/article-3",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/restrictive-practices-court-rules-1976/article-3.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1976/1897",
  "legislation_title": "The Restrictive Practices Court Rules 1976",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/restrictive-practices-court-rules-1976",
  "path": "article/3",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "3",
  "heading": null,
  "text": "(1) Subject to paragraph (7), proceedings under the Act shall be instituted by a notice of reference stating that the agreements to which the notice applies are referred to the Court.\n(2) A notice of reference may apply to one agreement or to a number of agreements appearing to the Director to be related in such a way as to make it desirable that they should be considered in the same proceedings.\n(3) A notice of reference shall sufficiently identify the agreement or agreements to which it applies.\n(4) A notice of reference shall specify the part of the United Kingdom in which the proceedings are to take place and shall be issued out of the central office of the Court or the office of the Court in Scotland or Northern Ireland as the case may be.\n(5) A notice of reference shall be issued by being sealed with the Court's seal by the proper officer of the Court; and when issued the notice shall be returned to the Director who shall leave a copy to be filed by the proper officer.\n(6) Subject to rules 5 and 6, the Director shall cause a copy of the notice of reference to be served on all parties to the agreement or agreements to which the notice applies, and all such parties shall be respondents to the notice.\n(7) This rule does not apply to applications under sections 3, 4, 26, 35, 37 and 40 of the Act, or to such an application as is mentioned in rule 51.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1976/1897/article/3",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T20:16:29.395092+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}