Advisory Opinions

Send a request to OICTS for an Advisory Opinion if you are unsure if a transaction is subject to a prohibition or requirement under the Connected Vehicles Rule. The requestor must have a direct financial interest in the substance of the question(s) presented, and the submission must include the names of the parties to the transaction.

Include the following with your request:

1. The name, title, telephone, and email address of the submitter; 
2. The submitter’s complete address, comprised of street address, city, state, country, and postal code; 
3. All available information identifying the parties to the prospective transaction; 
4. Information regarding the Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) hardware and/or covered software and any descriptive literature, brochures, technical specifications, or papers that provide sufficient technical detail to enable BIS to verify whether the prospective transaction would constitute a prohibited transaction as defined in this subpart; 
5. For connected vehicle manufacturers: the make, model, and trim level, or other identifying information of the completed connected vehicle; 
6. For VCS hardware importers: the identification of the system; and, if known, the make, model, and trim of the group of completed connected vehicles for which the equipment is intended; and 
7. Any other information that the submitter believes to be material to the prospective transaction. 

You must send your request to: 

[email protected]

Please entitle the subject of your email: Advisory Opinion Request: Entity Name.

OICTS will review your submission and determine whether the identified transaction is subject to prohibitions or requirements under the Connected Vehicles Rule. We will send our decision back to you by email at the email address you provide with your request. Advisory Opinion requests are only accepted by email. Please do not mail or fax your request.

OICTS will issue an Advisory Opinion within 60 days of receipt of an Advisory Opinion request unless it notifies the requestor within that 60-day period that more time is required through a notice of extension. Delays by the applicant in submitting additional information requested by BIS may delay or prevent BIS’s ability to issue and Advisory Opinion.

Currently OICTS does not have an automated way of displaying the status of Advisory Opinion requests.

If you have not received an Advisory Opinion or notice of extension within 60 days of submitting an Advisory Opinion request, you may request a status update at [email protected].

BIS will consider third-party material on a case-by-case basis as part of its review of and Advisory Opinion request. Third parties should submit any supporting documentation to [email protected] and indicate in their submission what Advisory Opinion request the submission is intended to support.  

Any information or material submitted to OICTS which the entity or any other party desires to submit in confidence as a part of an Advisory Opinion request should be contained within a file beginning its name with the characters “CBI.” Any page containing Confidential Business Information must be clearly marked “CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION” on the top of the page. Any pages not containing Confidential Business Information should not be marked. By submitting information or material identified as Confidential Business Information, the entity or other party represents that the information is exempted from public disclosure, either by the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552 et seq.) or by another specific statutory exemption. Any request for Confidential Business Information treatment must be accompanied at the time of submission by a statement justifying non-disclosure and referring to the specific legal authority claimed.