As regards the responses given by third parties to the Commission's requests for information, the mere fact that Article 17(2) of Regulation No 447/98 on the notifications, time limits and hearings provided for in Regulation No 4064/89 on the control of concentrations between undertakings imposes an obligation on each third party requesting confidentiality to indicate clearly which parts of its response are to be considered confidential does not prevent the Commission, in the light of Article 17(1) and the objective of Article 287 EC, from examining of its own volition whether there is a risk that business secrets of some of the third parties involved in the procedure, or even other confidential information, may be divulged if unlimited access is allowed to the responses of other third parties who have not themselves requested confidentiality.
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