(1) Pursuant to Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, the Bundeskartellamt shall be authorised, for the purpose of applying Article 101 and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and subject to subsection (2),
1. to inform the European Commission and the competition authorities of the other Member States of the European Union of any matter of fact or of law, including confidential information, in particular trade and business secrets, and to transfer to them corresponding documents and data, and
2. to request that these competition authorities transfer information pursuant to no 1 above, and to receive and use such information in evidence.
(2) Leniency statements may be transferred to the competition authority of another Member State of the European Union only if
1. the leniency applicant consents to the transfer of its leniency statement to the other competition authority, or
2. the other competition authority has received a leniency application from the same applicant relating to the same violation, provided that, at the time the leniency statement is transferred, the applicant is not free to withdraw the information submitted to the other competition authority.
(3) The Bundeskartellamt may use in evidence the information received only for the purpose of applying Article 101 or Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and with regard to the subject matter of the investigation for which it was collected by the transferring authority. Information exchanged pursuant to subsection (1) may, however, also be used for the purpose of applying this Act if provisions of this Act are applied in accordance with Article 12(2) sentence 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003.
(4) Information received by the Bundeskartellamt pursuant to subsection (1) can be used in evidence for the purpose of imposing sanctions on natural persons only where the law of the transferring authority provides for sanctions of a similar kind in relation to violations of Article 101 or Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Where the conditions set out in sentence 1 are not fulfilled, the information may be used in evidence if it has been collected in a way which ensures the same level of protection with regard to the rights of defence of natural persons as provided for under the law applicable to the Bundeskartellamt. The prohibition on the use of evidence pursuant to sentence 1 shall not exclude the use of the evidence against legal persons or associations of persons. Compliance with prohibitions on the use of evidence that are based on constitutional law shall remain unaffected.