1.This Regulation applies in civil or commercial matters in which the court of a Member State, in accordance with the law of that Member State, requests:
(a)the competent court of another Member State to take evidence; or
(b)the taking of evidence directly in another Member State.
2.A request shall not be made to obtain evidence which is not intended for use in judicial proceedings that have already commenced or are being contemplated.
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
‘court’ means courts and other authorities in Member States as communicated to the Commission under Article 31(3), that exercise judicial functions, that act pursuant to a delegation of power by a judicial authority or that act under the control of a judicial authority, and which are competent under national law to take evidence for the purposes of judicial proceedings in civil or commercial matters;
‘decentralised IT system’ means a network of national IT systems and interoperable access points operating under the individual responsibility and management of each Member State, that enables the secure and reliable cross-border exchange of information between the national IT systems.
1.Requests referred to in point (a) of Article 1(1) shall be transmitted by the court before which the proceedings are commenced or contemplated (‘requesting court’), directly to the competent court of another Member State (‘requested court’), for the taking of evidence.
2.Each Member State shall draw up a list of the courts competent to take evidence in accordance with this Regulation. The list shall also indicate the territorial and, where applicable, the special jurisdiction of those courts.
1.Each Member State shall designate a central body that is responsible for:
(a)supplying information to the courts;
(b)seeking solutions to any difficulties which may arise in respect of a request;
(c)forwarding, in exceptional cases, a request to the competent court at the request of a requesting court.
2.Federal Member States, Member States in which several legal systems apply and Member States with autonomous territorial units shall be free to designate more than one central body.
3.Each Member State shall also designate the central body referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article or one or more competent authorities to be responsible for taking decisions on requests made pursuant to Article 19.