Article 5 Notice of objections

The ECB or the competent national central bank, as the case may be, shall notify the undertaking concerned in writing of the factual results of any inquiry carried out and of the objections raised against the undertaking concerned before any decision is taken on the imposition of a sanction.

The ECB or the competent national central bank, as the case may be, shall, when giving notice of objections, fix a time limit within which the undertaking concerned may inform in writing the ECB or the competent national central bank, as the case may be, of its views on the objections raised, without prejudice to the possibility to develop these views at an oral hearing, if so requested in its written comments. This time limit shall be no less than 30 working days and shall start to run from receipt of the notification referred to in paragraph 1.

Further to the response received from the undertaking concerned, the ECB or the competent national central bank, as the case may be, shall decide whether to carry out further inquiries in order to resolve any outstanding issues. An additional notice of objections pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be sent to the undertaking concerned only if the result of the further inquiries conducted by the ECB or the competent national central bank, as the case may be, is to take new facts into account against the undertaking concerned or to alter the evidence for the contested infringements.

The ECB shall, in its decision to impose a sanction, deal only with those objections which have been notified in the manner outlined in paragraph 1 and in respect of which the undertaking concerned has been afforded the opportunity to make its views known.