Article 46b

Member States shall designate a supervisory body established in their territory or designate, upon mutual agreement with another Member State, a supervisory body established in that other Member State. That supervisory body shall be responsible for supervisory tasks in the designating Member State as regards trust services. The supervisory bodies designated pursuant to the first subparagraph shall be given the necessary powers and adequate resources for the exercise of their tasks.

Member States shall notify to the Commission the names and addresses of their supervisory bodies designated pursuant to paragraph 1 and any subsequent changes thereto. The Commission shall publish a list of the notified supervisory bodies.

The role of the supervisory bodies designated pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be: (a) to supervise qualified trust service providers established in the territory of the designating Member State and to ensure, by means of ex ante and ex post supervisory activities, that those qualified trust service providers and the qualified trust services that they provide meet the requirements laid down in this Regulation; (b) to take action, if necessary, in relation to non-qualified trust service providers established in the territory of the designating Member State, by means of ex post supervisory activities, when informed that those non-qualified trust service providers or the trust services they provide allegedly do not meet the requirements laid down in this Regulation.

The tasks of the supervisory body designated pursuant to paragraph 1 shall include in particular the following:

to inform the relevant competent authorities designated or established pursuant to Article 8(1) of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 of the Member States concerned of any significant security breach or loss of integrity of which it becomes aware in the performance of its tasks and, in the case of a significant security breach or loss of integrity which concerns other Member States, to inform the single point of contact designated or established pursuant to Article 8(3) Directive (EU) 2022/2555 of the Member State concerned and the single points of contact designated pursuant to Article 46c(1) of this Regulation in the other Member States concerned, and to inform the public or require the trust service provider to do so where the supervisory body determines that disclosure of the breach of security or loss of integrity would be in the public interest;

to cooperate with other supervisory bodies and to provide them with assistance in accordance with Articles 46c and 46e;

to analyse the conformity assessment reports referred to in Article 20(1) and Article 21(1);

to report to the Commission about its main activities in accordance with paragraph 6 of this Article;

to carry out audits or request a conformity assessment body to perform a conformity assessment of the qualified trust service providers in accordance with Article 20(2);

to cooperate with competent supervisory authorities established pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, in particular, by informing them, without undue delay, where personal data protection rules appear to have been breached and about security breaches which appear to constitute personal data breaches;

to grant qualified status to trust service providers and to the services they provide, and to withdraw that status in accordance with Articles 20 and 21;

to inform the body responsible for the national trusted list referred to in Article 22(3) of its decisions to grant or withdraw qualified status, unless that body is also the supervisory body designated pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article;

to verify the existence and correct application of provisions on termination plans where the qualified trust service provider ceases its activities, including how information is kept accessible in accordance with Article 24(2), point (h);

to require that trust service providers remedy any failure to fulfil the requirements laid down in this Regulation;

to investigate claims made by providers of web-browsers pursuant to Article 45a and to take action if necessary.

Member States may require the supervisory body designated pursuant to paragraph 1 to establish, maintain and update a trust infrastructure in accordance with national law.

By 31 March each year, each supervisory body designated pursuant to paragraph 1 shall submit to the Commission a report on its main activities in the previous calendar year. The Commission shall make those annual reports available to the European Parliament and the Council.

By 21 May 2025 , the Commission shall adopt guidelines on the exercise by the supervisory bodies designated pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article of the tasks referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article, and, by means of implementing acts, establish the formats and procedures for the report referred to in paragraph 6 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 48(2).