Article 41 Powers of competent authorities

1. In order to fulfil their duties under this Regulation, competent authorities referred to in Article 40(2) shall have, in conformity with national law, at least the following supervisory and investigatory powers:

(a) access to any document and other data in any form, and to receive or take a copy thereof;

(b) require or demand information from any person involved in the provision of, and contribution to, a benchmark, including any service provider to which functions, services or activities in the provision of a benchmark have been outsourced as provided for in Article 10, as well as their principals, and if necessary, summon and question any such person with a view to obtaining information;

(c) request, in relation to commodity benchmarks, information from contributors on related spot markets according, where applicable, to standardised formats and reports on transactions, and direct access to traders' systems;

(d) carry out on-site inspections or investigations, at sites other than the private residences of natural persons;

(e) enter premises of legal persons, without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, in order to seize documents and other data in any form, where a reasonable suspicion exists that documents and other data related to the subject-matter of the inspection or investigation may be relevant to prove a breach of this Regulation. Where prior authorisation is needed from the judicial authority of the Member State concerned, in accordance with national law, such power shall only be used after having obtained that prior authorisation;

(f) require existing recordings of telephone conversations, electronic communications or other data traffic records held by supervised entities;

(g) request the freezing or sequestration of assets or both;

(h) require temporary cessation of any practice that the competent authority considers contrary to this Regulation;

(i) impose a temporary prohibition on the exercise of professional activity;

(j) take all necessary measures to ensure that the public is correctly informed about the provision of a benchmark, including by requiring the relevant administrator or a person that has published or disseminated the benchmark or both to publish a corrective statement about past contributions to or figures of the benchmark.

2. The competent authorities referred to in Article 40(2) shall exercise their functions and powers referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and the powers to impose sanctions referred to in Article 42 in accordance with their national legal frameworks, in any of the following ways:

(a) directly;

(b) in collaboration with other authorities or with market undertakings;

(d) by application to the competent judicial authorities.

For the exercise of those powers, competent authorities shall have in place adequate and effective safeguards in regard to the right of defence and fundamental rights.

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.

4. An administrator or any other supervised entity making information available to a competent authority in accordance with paragraph 1 shall not be considered to be in breach of any restriction on disclosure of information posed by any contractual, legislative, regulatory or administrative provision.