2. Appeal

2nd Level of Complaint: Appeal to the Complaint Committee SAP

Fundamentals reagarding appeals against a appealable objection decision

Statutory Rights

The right to appeal, the postal address and the deadlines for appeals are stated in each report of the Inspection Service SAP.

Address for Appeals

Swiss Animal Protection SAP, Complaint Committee SAP, Dornacherstrasse 101, 4018 Basel

Complaint Committee SAP

The Complaint Committee SAP consits of

        the Head of Technical Division SAP (chairman)

        a representative of each client contractor of the parties affected by the complaint
        procedure

        a representative of the Governing Board of the SAP

        an external expert assessor

        a secretary (no voting right)

Deadlines

Within 10 days after recieving the appealable objection decision from the CEO Inspection Service SAP.

Form of the Appeal

The appeal must be written and well-founded.

Appeal Charge

An appeal is subject to charges.

The amount of the charge is determined annually by the internal QM meeting of the Inspection Service SAP and is publicated on the homepage of the Inspection Service SAP.

The appeal charge will be refund entirely if, in the course of the complaint procedure (2nd level of complaint), all of the criticised decisions (i.e. items of appeal) are adjusted in favour of the complaining party. If not all criticised decisions are adjusted in favour of the complaining party, the Complaint Committee SAP decides which share of the appeal charge will be refund.

Handling of Appeals

Acknowledgement of receipt
In order for all involved parties (controlled or inspected people/companies, traders and agents connected by contracts, clients, Complaint Committee SAP and the SAP inspector) to be informed that an appeal procedure is in progress, the secretary of the Complaint Committee SAP will, after receiving the appeal, issue a written receipt which in copy is sent to all parties involved. The appealant additionally recieves a demand for payment of the appeal charge.

The secretary of the Complaint Committee SAP requests from the CEO Inspection Service SAP the entire documentation of the corresponding appeal. After that, all of the information gathered by the CEO Inspection Service SAP and the entire documentation of the appealant are at the disposition of the Complaint Committee SAP.

The secretary of the Complaint Committee SAP sends the documentation to the members of the Complaint Committee SAP and organises the further course of the appeal procedure upon comments of the committee members.

The Complaint Committee SAP can process the appeal

  • in written form by letters, or meet in an appeal session at a location to be announced.
  • by extending it, collecting additional information.
  • with personal hearings of the appealant and the CEO Inspection Service SAP or additional people as necessary.

Approvement of the Appeal's Qualification

The Complaint Committee SAP evaluates wether the appeal qualifies for processing

  • Entire appeal:
    Is the editor of the appeal authorized to do so?

    → If not, the entire appeal will be disapproved of.

  • Single items of appeal:
    • Does the item of appeal refer to one or multiple specific decisions of the corresponding inspection or control?
    • Is there a justified reason why the specific item of appeal is inaccurate from the point of view of the appealant?
    • Is the item of appeal based on the inspector's / the Inspection Service SAP's proceedings and implementations of guidelines, evaluation criteria and inspection/control instructions currently valid?

→ If not, and especially when an item of appeal criticises existing guidelines, laws and ordnances, inspection/control instructions or the severity of a penalty, the respective item of appeal will be disapproved of.

Appeal Decision

The Complaint Committee SAP issues an appeal decision based on the facts gathered. It must comment on each appeal item and justify why each of them was approved or disapproved of. Thereby, the following points must be clarified:

  • Was the inspection/control conducted according to the corresponding guidelines and instructions?
  • Are all statements and measurings plausible?
  • Are eventual calculations correct?
  • Was the criticised decision made in accordance with the corresponding evaluation criteria?

The decisions are made by simple majority with the chairman having the deciding vote. The complaint committee is quorate with at least three voters, one of which must be the representative of the client contractor of the parties affected. Abstentions are allowed and count as votes.

Disclosure of the Appeal Decision

The appeal decision is issued to the appealant in writing.

All involved parties (inspected/controlled people or companies, traders and agents connected by contracts, clients, label owners, Complaint Committee SAP and the SAP inspector) recieve a written copy of the appeal decision.

Recommendations

The Complaint Committee SAP can issue recommendations regarding improvement of the evaluation process, unclarities in the underlying guidelines, shortcomings in the inspection/control instructions et al. in favour of the Inspection Service SAP or its clients.

Subsequent Tasks

The CEO Inspection Service SAP arranges the adjustment of the report and its delivery to the recipients in question and the Complaint Committe SAP, if, due to the appeal decision, a correction of the initial inspection or control evaluation is necessary.

If further measures are considered to be necessary on the basis of the appeal decision, a person responsible for their execution will be appointed and a deadline set. The secretary of the Complaint Committee SAP supervises the measures' execution.

Documentation of Appeals

For each objection to the Inspection Service SAP and each appeal to the Complaint Committee SAP a file containing all relevant documentation is created by the Inspection Service SAP.

The secretary of the Complaint Committee SAP maintains an identical archive in copy to safeguard the loss of documentation.

Each file is stored for at least ten years.

Complaint Procedure