For the purposes of investigating market abuse as defined by Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (Market Abuse Regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC, investigators may obtain disclosure of data stored and processed by telecommunications operators, under the conditions and subject to the limits provided for inArticle L. 34-1 of the French Post and Electronic Communications Code, and by the service providers mentioned in 1 and 2 of I of Article 6 of Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 on confidence in the digital economy.
Communication of the data mentioned in the first paragraph of this article is subject to prior authorisation by a controller of connection data requests.
The controller of connection data requests shall alternate between a member of the Conseil d’Etat, in active service or honorary, elected by the general assembly of the Conseil d’Etat, and a magistrate of the Cour de cassation, in active service or honorary, elected by the general assembly of the said Court. A deputy from the other court is appointed in the same way. The controller of connection data requests and his alternate are elected for a non-renewable term of four years.
The functions of the controller of requests for connection data may only be terminated at his request or in the event of impediment established, as the case may be, by the vice-president of the Conseil d’Etat or by the first president of the Cour de cassation or the public prosecutor at the said Court, upon referral by the minister responsible for the economy.
The controller of connection data requests may not receive or seek any instructions from the Autorité des marchés financiers or any other authority in the performance of his duties. They are bound by professional secrecy under the conditions set out in Article L. 621-4 of this Code.
The Secretary General or Deputy Secretary General of the Autorité des marchés financiers shall submit a reasoned request to the Ombudsman. The application must include all information required to justify the request.
The authorisation is added to the investigation file.
The investigators shall use the data communicated by the telecommunications operators and service providers mentioned in the first paragraph of this Article exclusively for the purposes of the investigation for which they have received authorisation.
Connection data relating to acts that are the subject of complaints notified by the AMF Board shall be destroyed six months after the final decision of the Enforcement Committee or the appeal courts. In the event of an administrative settlement, the six-month period shall run from execution of the agreement.
Connection data relating to facts that have not been the subject of a statement of objections by the AMF Board are destroyed one month after the Board’s decision.
If the investigation report is forwarded to the Financial Public Prosecutor or if the Financial Public Prosecutor initiates public proceedings pursuant to III and IV of Article L. 465-3-6, the connection data shall be handed over to the Financial Public Prosecutor and shall not be retained by the AMF.
The terms of application of this article shall be set by decree in the Conseil d’Etat.