On September 30, the German Federal Customs Office ("FCO") issued a statement regarding the legality of the proposed purchase of EMTEC’s data-tape assets by Imation Corporation. This was a "preliminary statement", in that anyone objecting to it has until October 17th to enter a complaint. The statement notes that the FCO believes that the acquisition "will be harmful for free trade both now and for the following five years due to a market-controlling position", but adds that a decision must be made in favor of Imation because "there is a lack of binding bids or announcements of interest in a bidding" from other sources. The FCO adds that it does not expect anyone to object to the acquisition or enter a competing bid by the October 17th deadline. If no one does, the bankruptcy administrator will proceed to award the purchase of EMTEC’s data-tape business to Imation. This will become legally binding immediately after that date.