Misuse of telecommunications installations

(1) It is prohibited to possess, manufacture, make available on the market, import, or otherwise bring within the territorial scope of this Act, telecommunications installations that, by their form, simulate another object, or that are disguised as everyday objects, and that, owing to these circumstances or to their mode of operation, are particularly suited and intended to intercept, unnoticed by the other person, the non-publicly spoken word of another, or to record, unnoticed by the other person, the image of another.
(2) A telecommunications installation is deemed intended for unnoticed interception or image recording in particular where its interception or recording function is not clearly recognisable to the person concerned during the ordinary use of the object.
(3) The prohibition on possessing telecommunications installations under paragraph 1 does not apply to a person who obtains actual control of such a telecommunications installation 1. as an organ, as a member of an organ, as a statutory representative, or as a partner authorised to represent an entity entitled under paragraph 5, 2. from another entitled person under paragraph 5, or for such a person, provided and for as long as they are bound to follow that other entitled person's instructions concerning the exercise of actual control over the telecommunications installation by virtue of an employment or service relationship, or exercise actual control by virtue of a judicial or official commission, 3. as a court enforcement officer or enforcement official in enforcement proceedings, 4. temporarily from an entitled person under paragraph 5 for the purpose of safekeeping or of non-commercial carriage to an entitled person, 5. solely for commercial carriage or commercial storage, 6. by finding it, provided that the person delivers the telecommunications installation without delay to the person who lost it, the owner, another entitled person under paragraph 5, or the body responsible for receiving reports of found property, 7. by succession on death, provided that the person transfers the telecommunications installation without delay to an entitled person under paragraph 5 or renders it permanently unusable.
(4) The prohibition on possessing telecommunications installations under paragraph 1 further does not apply to a telecommunications installation that has been rendered permanently unusable by the removal of an essential component, provided that the person who obtains actual control of such a telecommunications installation reports the acquisition without delay in writing to the Federal Network Agency. The report must contain the following particulars: 1. the surname, first names and address of the acquirer, 2. the type of telecommunications installation, its manufacturer's mark or trademark and, if the telecommunications installation has a serial number, that number as well, 3. a credible showing that the acquirer has acquired the telecommunications installation exclusively for collecting purposes.
(5) The competent supreme Federal or Land authorities shall grant exemptions from paragraph 1 where this is necessary in the public interest, in particular for reasons of public security or for the purpose of teaching about, or research into, telecommunications installations of the relevant kind. Paragraph 1 further does not apply insofar as the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control has approved the export of the telecommunications installations, nor to technical means used by authorities within the limits of their statutory powers to carry out technical investigative measures.
(6) It is prohibited to advertise, publicly or in communications intended for a larger group of persons, telecommunications installations with an indication that they are suited to intercept, unnoticed by the other person, the non-publicly spoken word of another, or to record, unnoticed by the other person, the image of another.