S.L. 330.17 Art. 6Powers of the Authority.

(1) Without prejudice to any other supervisory, regulatory, enforcement and investigatory powers assigned to the Authority under the Act or any other law, in order to fulfil its duties under the CPC Regulation, the Authority shall have the following investigatory and enforcement powers:

(a) the power to access any relevant documents, data or information related to an infringement covered by the CPC Regulation, in any form or format and irrespective of their storage medium, or the place where, they are stored;

(b) the power to require any public authority, body or agency in Malta or any natural or legal person to provide any relevant information, data or documents, in any form or format and irrespective of their storage medium, or the place where they are stored, for the purposes of establishing whether an infringement covered by the CPC Regulation has occurred or is occurring, and for the purposes of establishing the details of such infringement, including tracing financial and data flows, ascertaining the identity of persons involved in financial and data flows, and ascertaining bank account information and ownership of websites;

(c) the power to carry out necessary on-site inspections, including the power to enter any premises, land or means of transport that the trader concerned by the inspection uses for purposes related to his trade, business, craft or profession, or to request other public authorities to do so, in order to examine, seize, take or obtain copies of information, data or documents, irrespective of their storage medium;

(d) the power to seize any information, data or documents for as long as the Authority may deem necessary and to the extent necessary for the inspection;

(e) the power to request any representative or member of the staff of the trader concerned by the inspection to give explanations of facts, information, data or documents relating to the subject matter of the inspection and to record the answers;

(f) the power to purchase goods or services as test purchases, where necessary, under a cover identity, in order to detect infringements covered by the CPC Regulation and to obtain evidence, including the power to inspect, observe, study, disassemble or test goods or services;

(g) the power to adopt interim measures to avoid the (CONSUMER PROTECTION COOPERATION)

risk of serious harm to the collective interests of consumers;

(h) the power to seek to obtain or to accept commitments from the trader responsible for the infringement covered by the CPC Regulation to cease that infringement;

(i) the power to receive from the trader, on the trader’s initiative, additional remedial commitments for the benefit of consumers that have been affected by the alleged infringement covered by the CPC Regulation, or, where appropriate, to seek to obtain commitments from the trader to offer adequate remedies to the consumers that have been affected by that infringement;

(j) the power to issue a directive in writing requiring the cessation of infringements covered by the CPC Regulation by the trader;

(k) the power to bring about the cessation or the prohibition of infringements covered by the CPC Regulation;

(l) where no other effective means are available to bring about the cessation or the prohibition of the infringement covered by the CPC Regulation and in order to avoid the risk of serious harm to the collective interests of consumers:

(i) the power to remove content or to restrict access to an online interface or to order the explicit display of a warning to consumers when they access an online interface;

(ii) the power to order a hosting service provider to remove, disable or restrict access to an online interface; or

(iii) where appropriate, the power to order domain registries or registrars to delete a fully qualified domain name and to allow the competent authority concerned to register it:

Provided that the powers listed in sub-paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) shall include the power to request a third party or other public authority to implement such measures; and

(m) the power to start investigations or proceedings on its own initiative to bring about the cessation or prohibition of infringements covered by the CPC Regulation.

(2) Where applicable, the Authority may consult consumer organisations, trader associations, any designated bodies or other persons concerned, regarding the effectiveness of the proposed commitments in bringing the infringement covered by the CPC Regulation to an end.

(3) The Authority may issue Rules in terms of article 16(2)(a) and article 20A(3) of the Act for the better carrying out of these regulations.