Provision of information

(1) The owners of the undertakings, or the persons representing them, are obliged to 1. provide the information requested under section 203(1) to (4), 2. produce the business documents, and 3. tolerate examination of these business documents and entry onto business premises and land during the usual operating or business hours. For legal persons, companies, or unincorporated associations, the obligations under the first sentence apply to the persons called upon, by law or by the articles of association, to represent them.
(2) Persons commissioned by the Federal Network Agency to carry out examinations may enter the office and business premises of the undertakings and associations of undertakings during the usual operating or business hours.
(3) Searches may be carried out only on the order of the local court in whose district the search is to take place. Sections 306 to 310 and 311a of the Code of Criminal Procedure apply correspondingly to challenging this order. In the case of imminent danger, the persons named in subsection (2) may carry out the necessary searches during business hours without judicial order. A record of the search and its essential result is to be drawn up on the spot, which, where no judicial order has been issued, must also state the facts giving rise to the assumption of imminent danger.
(4) Objects or business documents may be taken into custody to the extent necessary, or, where not voluntarily handed over, seized. Subsection (3) applies correspondingly to seizure.
(5) Persons obliged to provide information under subsection (1) may refuse to answer questions the answering of which would expose themselves, or relatives named in section 383(1), points 1 to 3, of the Code of Civil Procedure, to the risk of criminal prosecution or of proceedings under the Act on Regulatory Offences. Knowledge and documents obtained through information or measures under section 203(1) to (4) may not be used for a taxation procedure, or for a regulatory-fine procedure for a tax-related regulatory offence or a foreign exchange contravention, or for proceedings for a tax offence or a foreign exchange offence; sections 93, 97, 105(1), section 111(5) in conjunction with section 105(1), and section 116(1) of the Fiscal Code do not apply in this respect. The second sentence does not apply to proceedings for a tax offence, and a related taxation procedure, where a compelling public interest exists in conducting them, or in the case of intentionally false particulars by the persons obliged to provide information or persons acting for them.
(6) Insofar as examinations have revealed a breach of conditions, orders, or decisions of the Federal Network Agency, the undertaking must reimburse the Federal Network Agency for the expenditure on these examinations, including its expenses for experts.
(7) To enforce measures under section 203, a coercive fine of at least EUR 1,000 and not more than EUR 10 million may be imposed in accordance with the Administrative Enforcement Act.