Article 23
Powers of competent authorities
1.
Competent authorities shall exercise their functions and powers in any of the following ways:
(a)
directly;
(b)
in collaboration with other authorities or with the market undertakings;
(c)
under their responsibility by delegation to such authorities or to market undertakings;
(d)
by application to the competent judicial authorities.
2.
In order to fulfil their duties under this Regulation, competent authorities shall have, in accordance with national law, at least the following supervisory and investigatory powers:
(a)
to access any document and data in any form, and to receive or take a copy thereof;
(b)
(c)
in relation to commodity derivatives, to request information from market participants on related spot markets according to standardised formats, obtain reports on transactions, and have direct access to traders’ systems;
(d)
to carry out on-site inspections and investigations at sites other than at the private residences of natural persons;
(e)
subject to the second subparagraph, to enter the premises of natural and legal persons in order to seize documents and data in any form where a reasonable suspicion exists that documents or data relating to the subject matter of the inspection or investigation may be relevant to prove a case of insider dealing or market manipulation infringing this Regulation;
(f)
to refer matters for criminal investigation;
(g)
to require existing recordings of telephone conversations, electronic communications or data traffic records held by investment firms, credit institutions or financial institutions;
(h)
to require, insofar as permitted by national law, existing data traffic records held by a telecommunications operator, where there is a reasonable suspicion of an infringement and where such records may be relevant to the investigation of an infringement of point (a) or (b) of Article 14 or Article 15;
(i)
to request the freezing or sequestration of assets, or both;
(j)
to suspend trading of the financial instrument concerned;
(k)
to require the temporary cessation of any practice that the competent authority considers contrary to this Regulation;
(l)
to impose a temporary prohibition on the exercise of professional activity; and
(m)
Where in accordance with national law prior authorisation to enter premises of natural and legal persons referred to in point (e) of the first subparagraph is needed from the judicial authority of the Member State concerned, the power as referred to in that point shall be used only after having obtained such prior authorisation.
3.
Member States shall ensure that appropriate measures are in place so that competent authorities have all the supervisory and investigatory powers that are necessary to fulfil their duties.
This Regulation is without prejudice to laws, regulations and administrative provisions adopted in relation to takeover bids, merger transactions and other transactions affecting the ownership or control of companies regulated by the supervisory authorities appointed by Member States pursuant to Article 4 of Directive 2004/25/EC that impose requirements in addition to the requirements of this Regulation.
4.
A person making information available to the competent authority in accordance with this Regulation shall not be considered to be infringing any restriction on disclosure of information imposed by contract or by any legislative, regulatory or administrative provision, and shall not involve the person notifying in liability of any kind related to such notification.