Access to files in an ECB supervisory procedure
Article 32
1. The rights of defence of the parties concerned shall be fully respected in ECB supervisory procedures. For this purpose, and after the opening of the ECB supervisory procedure, the parties shall be entitled to have access to the ECB’s file, subject to the legitimate interest of legal and natural persons other than the relevant party, in the protection of their business secrets. The right of access to the file shall not extend to confidential information. The NCAs shall forward to the ECB, without undue delay, any request received by them related to the access to files connected with ECB supervisory procedures. 2. The files consist of all documents obtained, produced or assembled by the ECB during the ECB supervisory procedure, irrespective of the storage medium. 3. Nothing in this Article shall prevent the ECB or NCAs from disclosing and using information necessary to prove an infringement. 4. The ECB may determine that access to a file shall be granted in one or more of the following ways, taking due account of the technical capabilities of the parties: (a) by means of CD-ROMs or any other electronic data storage device including any that may become available in future; (b) through copies of the accessible file in paper form sent to them by mail; (c) by inviting them to examine the accessible file in the offices of the ECB. 5. For the purpose of this article, confidential information may include internal documents of the ECB and NCAs and correspondence between the ECB and an NCA or between NCAs.