Article 6 Identification and protection of confidential information

Unless otherwise provided for in Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 or Article 5 of this Regulation, information or documents collected or obtained by the Commission shall not be disclosed or made accessible by the Commission in so far as they contain business secrets or other confidential information of any natural or legal person.

When seizing documents or receiving voluntary access to documents during inspections pursuant to Article 69 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, or otherwise receiving documents or access to information pursuant to Article 72 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Commission shall inform the very large online platforms or of very large online search engines concerned or, where applicable, other natural or legal person concerned referred to in Article 67(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, that access to that information may be granted pursuant to Article 5 of this Regulation. In any event, when very large online platforms or very large online search engines or, where applicable, other natural or legal person concerned voluntarily provide information to the Commission under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 or this Regulation they agree that access to that information may be granted pursuant to Article 5 of this Regulation.

Without prejudice to paragraph 2, the Commission may require very large online platforms or very large online search engines or, where applicable, other natural or legal person concerned who are the originators of documents in its file to identify the documents, statements or parts thereof which they consider to contain business secrets or other confidential information and to identify the natural and legal persons in relation to whom that information is considered to be confidential. The Commission may also set a time-limit for the very large online platforms or of very large online search engines concerned or, where applicable, other natural or legal person concerned referred to in Article 67(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 to identify any part of a Commission decision which in their view contains business secrets or other confidential information.

1. substantiate their claims for business secrets and other confidential information for each individual document and database or part of document and database;

2. provide the Commission with a non-confidential version of the documents and database in which the business secrets and other confidential information are redacted in a clear and intelligible manner;

3. provide a concise, non-confidential, description of each piece of redacted information.

If providers of very large online platforms or of very large online search engines or, where applicable, natural or legal person concerned referred to in Article 67(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, fail to comply with paragraphs 2 and 3, the Commission may consider that the information concerned do not contain business secrets or other confidential information.

If the Commission determines that certain information that is claimed to be confidential by providers of very large online platforms or of very large online search engines or, where applicable, natural or legal person concerned referred to in Article 67(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, may be disclosed, either because this information does not constitute a business secret or other confidential information, or because there is an overriding interest in its disclosure, it shall inform the concerned providers or natural or legal person, that it intends to disclose such information unless it receives objections within one week. Should the providers or natural or legal person in question object, the Commission may adopt a reasoned decision specifying the date after which the information will be disclosed. This date shall not be less than one week from the date of notification. The decision shall be notified to the concerned providers or natural or legal person.