Article 6
Obligations of credit institutions 1. Credit institutions, and any other institutions engaged in the sorting and distribution to the public of notes and coins as a professional activity, including establishments whose activity consists in exchanging notes and coins of different currencies, such as bureaux de change, shall be obliged to withdraw from circulation all euro notes and coins received by them which they know or have sufficient reason to believe to be counterfeit. They shall immediately hand them over to the competent national authorities. 2. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the establishments referred to in paragraph 1 which fail to discharge their obligations under the said paragraph are subject to effective, proportionate and deterrent sanctions. 3. Member States shall adopt by 1 January 2002 the laws, regulations and administrative provisions for applying this Article. They shall forthwith inform the Commission and the European Central Bank thereof. CHAPTER 4 COOPERATION AND MUTUAL ASSISTANCE