Art. 3 Templates and recording | RTS on issuer complaints handling | MiCA

This article sets out the practical, operational obligations that issuers of asset-referenced tokens must fulfil when receiving and handling complaints.

Building on the procedural framework and transparency requirements established in Articles 1 and 2, Article 3 moves into the concrete mechanics of complaints intake: how complaints are received, recorded, acknowledged, and handled on the ground.

It also anchors the complaints process within broader GDPR obligations by requiring a privacy notice to accompany the standard complaints template.

Important points:

Develop and make available a complaints template, ensuring holders and other interested parties can submit complaints by electronic means or in paper form, free of charge.
Accept and handle complaints even when filed outside the standard template format, and acknowledge receipt with the date clearly stated.
Record all complaints and responses internally in an appropriate manner, respecting applicable national timing requirements on retention.

Issuers of asset-referenced tokens shall:

develop and make available to holders of asset-referenced tokens and other interested parties, including consumer associations that represent holders of asset-referenced tokens, a template for filing complaints as set out in the Annex;
ensure that holders of asset-referenced tokens and any other interested parties are able to:
1. submit complaints by electronic means or in paper form;
2. file complaints free of charge;
acknowledge receipt of a complaint clearly mentioning the date of its receipt and, where an electronic complaint form is filed, provide the complainant with a copy of that complaint;
record, internally, complaints and measures taken in response thereto in an appropriate manner, such as through a secure electronic register, and for a reasonable period of time and in any event no longer than permitted under national timing requirements, where applicable;
accept and handle a complaint even if the complainant files the complaint in a format other than the template set out in the Annex;
provide the complainant with a privacy notice to accompany the template provided in the Annex to this Regulation, in accordance with Articles 13 and 14 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council(⁴).