Why has my payment been rejected?

The validation functionality detects and automatically rejects the following: 

• renewal fee payments for definitively closed applications and granted patents 
• payments of the fee for registration of a transfer for definitively closed applications 
• double payments, i.e. where the same fee has already been paid, unless the fee is one of those that can be paid several times in the proceedings before the EPO 
• renewal fee payments before the applicable earliest valid payment date (Rule 51(1) EPC) 

The automatic rejection of payments reduces the administrative work involved in refunding invalidly paid fees, for both users and the EPO.