Article 31 - Competent authorities

1.  Each Member State shall designate a single competent administrative authority responsible for carrying out the duties resulting from this Regulation and for ensuring that the provisions of this Regulation are applied. Member States shall inform the Commission, ESMA and the competent authorities of other Member States accordingly.

The competent authority shall be independent from market participants.

2.  Member States may allow their competent authority to delegate to third parties the tasks of electronic publication of approved prospectuses and related documents.

Any such delegation of tasks shall be made in a specific decision setting out the following:

(a) the tasks to be undertaken and the conditions under which they are to be carried out;
(b) a clause obliging the third party in question to act and be organised in such a manner as to avoid conflicts of interest and to ensure that information obtained while carrying out the delegated tasks is not used unfairly or to prevent competition; and
(c) all arrangements entered into between the competent authority and the third party to which tasks are delegated.

The final responsibility for supervising compliance with this Regulation and for approving the prospectus shall lie with the competent authority designated in accordance with paragraph 1.

The Member States shall inform the Commission, ESMA and the competent authorities of other Member States of any decision to delegate tasks as referred to in the second subparagraph, including the precise conditions regulating such delegation.

3.  Paragraphs 1 and 2 are without prejudice to the possibility for a Member State to make separate legal and administrative arrangements for overseas European territories for whose external relations that Member State is responsible.