For reviews and investigations of all matters, the FTC may inform foreign competition authorities directly, using practical modes of communication, such as phone or email. Such informal notification facilitates effective International Enforcement Co-operation and has the advantage of direct and timely coordination with counterparts in comparison to notification through diplomatic channels. In some instances, the FTC sends notifications to governments pursuant to bilateral agreements or arrangements, but in almost all instances, the foreign competition authority already knows of the FTC’s review of the matter before such formal notifications are sent or received. The FTC and DOJ also are parties to numerous co-operation agreements and arrangements that require or provide a legal basis for notification. The notification provisions in these agreements and arrangements are similar but not identical. They typically require notification whenever a competition authority in a signatory jurisdiction becomes aware that its enforcement activities may affect “important interests” of the other jurisdiction, e.g., where an investigation: (i) is relevant to enforcement activities of the other party’s authority; (ii) involves anticompetitive activities (other than a merger or acquisition) carried out in significant part in the other party's territory; or (iii) involves a merger or acquisition in which a party or parent company is incorporated or organized in another country or member state. The obligations also apply outside of the merger context if the subject of the investigation is incorporated or organized under the laws of the other party. These provisions typically require identification of the nature of the practices under investigation and the legal provisions concerned and should ordinarily be given as promptly as possible after a party's competition authority/ies become/s aware that notifiable circumstances are present.