(1) To the extent necessary for the purpose of fulfilling the tasks assigned to the competition authority under this Act, the competition authority may, until its decision becomes final, request from undertakings and associations of undertakings the provision of information and the surrender of documents. The undertakings and associations of undertakings shall be obliged to provide the information or surrender the documents within a reasonable period of time. This obligation covers all of the information and documents accessible to such undertakings or associations of undertakings. This also includes general market surveys which serve the purpose of evaluating or analysing the conditions of competition or the market situation and are in the possession of the undertaking or association of undertakings. The obligation also applies to the particular circumstances of postal traffic. Postal secrecy under Article 10 of the Basic Law is limited in this respect. The competition authority may prescribe the form in which the information is to be provided; in particular, it may stipulate that an online platform must be used to submit the information. The competition authority may summon representatives of the undertaking or the association of undertakings to appear for questioning. Sentences 1 to 8 shall apply mutatis mutandis to legal persons and associations of persons that are not undertakings or associations of undertakings.
(2) The owners of the undertakings and their representatives, and in the case of legal persons and associations of persons also the persons appointed as representatives, shall be obliged to provide the information requested and to surrender the documents requested on behalf of the undertaking, the association of undertakings or the legal person or association of persons. The name of a person in a leading position responsible for providing the information shall be communicated to the competition authority.
(3) The request for information must be proportionate. It shall not compel the addressee of the request to confess to a criminal offence, an administrative offence or a violation of a provision of this Act or of Article 101 or Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. To the extent that natural persons are obliged under a request for information pursuant to subsections (1) and (2) to cooperate by providing information or surrendering documents, they shall, if obtaining information in any other way would be significantly more difficult or unlikely, also disclose facts that may result in prosecution for a criminal or administrative offence. Any information disclosed by the natural person in fulfilling the obligation under subsections (1) and (2) may, however, be used in criminal proceedings or in proceedings pursuant to this Act or the German Administrative Offences Act against that person or against a relative as defined in Section 52(1) of the German Code of Criminal Procedure only with the consent of the natural person affected.
(4) Subsection (1) sentences 1 to 6 and subsection (3) sentence 1 shall apply mutatis mutandis to requests for information addressed to natural persons. Section 55 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure shall be applied mutatis mutandis, unless the information results merely in a risk of prosecution in fine proceedings conducted by a competition authority and the competition authority has, in exercising its due discretion, given the natural person a commitment not to prosecute [Nichtverfolgungszusage].
(5) Requests for information made by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy or the supreme Land authority shall be made by individual order in writing and those of the Bundeskartellamt by decision. The legal basis, the subject matter and the purpose of the request for information shall be stated in the individual order or decision and an appropriate time limit for providing the information shall be stipulated.