TITLE V: Powers of investigation.

I.-As an exception to the last two paragraphs of Article L. 450-3, for the purposes of investigating and establishing the offences and breaches provided for in Title II of this Book, access to data stored and processed by telecommunications operators, under the conditions and within the limits provided for in article 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 2004for confidence in the digital economy is carried out under the conditions defined in this article.

II.-Access to the data mentioned in I of this article by the agents mentioned in article L. 450-1 is subject to a request for prior authorisation from the general rapporteur of the Competition Authority or the administrative authority responsible for competition and consumer affairs to a controller of connection data requests.

The controller of requests for connection data is alternately 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 Cour de cassation. 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 duties of the controller of requests for connection data may only be terminated at his or her request or in the event of his or her impediment being 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, at the request of the minister responsible for the economy.

The controller of connection data requests may not receive or seek any instructions from the competition authority, the administrative authority responsible for competition and consumer affairs or any other authority in the performance of his duties.

The request for authorisation shall mention the elements gathered by the agents mentioned in Article L. 450-1 leading to a presumption of the existence of an offence or breach mentioned in Title II of this Book and justifying access to connection data for the purposes of the investigation.

The agents mentioned in Article L. 450-1 shall use the connection data communicated under the conditions of this Article exclusively in the context of the investigation for which they have received authorisation to access it.

The authorisation shall be placed in the investigation file.

These connection data are destroyed six months after a final decision by the Competition Authority, the administrative authority responsible for competition and consumer affairs or the judicial or administrative court.

Connection data relating to acts not subject to prosecution shall be destroyed on expiry of a period of one month from the decision of the general rapporteur of the Competition Authority or the administrative authority referred to in I of Article L. 470-2 or the judicial or administrative jurisdiction, without prejudice to their transmission to the public prosecutor pursuant to article 40 of the code of criminal procedure.

The detailed rules for the application of this article shall be specified by decree in the Council of State.