(1) Everyone is entitled to inspect the Commercial Register for information purposes, as well as the documents submitted thereto, by performing individual retrievals. The Land departments of justice designate the electronic information and communication system via which the data from the Commercial Register are retrievable, and are responsible for operating the electronic retrieval procedure. The Land government may redistribute, by statutory instrument, these responsibilities; it may transfer, by statutory instrument, such authority to the Land department of justice. The Länder may designate a nationwide, centralised electronic information and communication system. They may also agree to have the processing tasks transferred to the competent body of another Land, as well as agree with the operator of the Business Register to have the processing tasks transferred to the Business Register.
(2) Where documents are available only in paper form, electronic transmission may be requested only for such documents as were submitted to the Commercial Register less than ten years before the time when the request was made.
(3) Upon request, the court will certify that the data transmitted are identical to the content of the Commercial Register and to the documents submitted to the Commercial Register. To this end, an authentication is to be effected by a trust service in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (OJ L 257 of 28 August 2014, p. 73; L 23 of 29 January 2015, p. 19; L 155 of 14 June 2016, p. 44).
(4) A printout of the entries and of the documents submitted may be requested. Where the documents submitted to the Commercial Register exist only in paper form, a copy may be requested. The copy is to be certified by the court registry and the printout is to be issued as an official copy, unless such certification is waived.
(5) Upon request, the court is to issue a certificate stating that no further entries exist with regard to the subject-matter of an entry, or that a certain entry has not been made.
(6) Subsection (1) sentence 1 applies accordingly to the inspection of the Business Register. Requests in accordance with subsections (2) to (5) may also be communicated to the court via the Business Register. The inspection of data entered with the Business Register for permanent lodgment is effected only upon request by transmission of a copy.