New Rfees7 and the ADA

• The February OJ was recently published and contains no amendment of the ADA.
• The arrangements for deposit accounts (ADA) point 4.1 provides that “the ten-day fail-safe provision of Article 7(3)(a) and (b) RFees, second half-sentence, and Article 7(4) RFees apply mutatis mutandis to replenishment payments.” (OJ 2019 sp4)
• However, the ‘the ten-day fail-safe provision’ is abolished with effect of 1 April 2020 (OJ 2020 A3), in the sense that it is no longer ‘ten days’.
• Rfees 7 is the rule about fee payments made with bank transfer, in case the payer initiates the bank transfer before the expiry of the period, but the money only actually enters the EPO bank account after the expiry of the period. ADA 4.1 provides that the rule applies (more or less) also for replenishment payments to deposit accounts. 
• With effect of 1 April 2020, there is no longer a surcharge payable in case the bank transfer was initiated less than 10 days before the expiry of the period. If the bank transfer is initiated on the last day of the period and the money is received by the EPO later, this is considered to be a timely payment.
• Amended Article 7(3) neither has a sub-paragraph A anymore nor a subparagraph B. Moreover, the rule no longer refers to any ten-day period.
• Perhaps the EPO President of the Office could amend the ADA in time before 1 April 2020. Though it sometimes appears that the EPO department in charge of the ADA is completely separate from the department that looks after the Rfees.