e-Evidence Regulation Article 6: Conditions for issuing a European Preservation Order

1. An issuing authority may only issue a European Preservation Order where the conditions set out in this Article are fulfilled. Article 5(8) shall apply mutatis mutandis.

2. A European Preservation Order shall be necessary for and proportionate to the purpose of preventing the removal, deletion or alteration of data with a view to issuing a subsequent request for production of those data via mutual legal assistance, a European Investigation Order (EIO) or a European Production Order, taking into account the rights of the suspect or the accused person.

3. A European Preservation Order may be issued for all criminal offences, if it could have been issued under the same conditions in a similar domestic case, and for the execution of a custodial sentence or a detention order of at least four months, following criminal proceedings, imposed by a decision that was not rendered in absentia, in cases where the person convicted absconded from justice.

4. A European Preservation Order shall include the following information:

(a) the issuing authority and, where applicable, the validating authority;

(b) the addressee of the European Preservation Order as referred to in Article 7;

(c) the user, except where the sole purpose of the order is to identify the user, or any other unique identifier such as user name, login ID or account name to determine the data for which preservation is requested;

(d) the requested data category as defined in Article 3, points (9) to (12);

(e) if applicable, the time range of the data for which preservation is requested;

(f) the applicable provisions of the criminal law of the issuing State;

(g) the grounds for determining that the European Preservation Order fulfils the conditions of necessity and proportionality under paragraph 2 of this Article.