for other purposes, notably for passing on to other parties, shall be permitted only if this Act or another legal provision provides for such and makes explicit reference to postal items or postal traffic. The reporting requirement according to §138 of the Penal Code shall have precedence.
(4) The prohibitions of (3) above shall not apply where the acts designated therein are necessary to
verify that reduced rate postal items meet the relevant pricing conditions;
secure the contents of damaged postal items;
establish the addressee or sender of an undeliverable postal item when this cannot be done by any other means;
avert physical danger to persons or property from a postal item of mail.
Delivery of postal items to substitute addressees shall be permitted under the contractual agreement with the sender.
(5) Communications concerning a party’s postal traffic shall be permitted, provided they are required to assert in or out of court claims against this party arising in connection with the provision of a postal service, or to enable prosecution of a criminal offence committed to the detriment of a postal company during the course of post.
§40 Communications to Courts and Public Authorities
Companies and persons providing postal services on a commercial basis or assisting in the provision of such services shall inform courts and public authorities at their request of the postal address, in a form enabling correct delivery, of any party participating in postal traffic, provided this is required for purposes of postal traffic of the courts or public authorities. This shall also apply when the addressee has not given the consent required for such communication or has raised objections to communication.
§41 Data Protection
(1) The Federal Government shall issue, by ordinance having the force of law requiring the consent of the German Bundesrat, provisions on the protection of the personal data of those participating in postal traffic which govern the collection, processing and use of such data for companies providing postal services on a commercial basis or assisting in the provision of such services. These provisions shall take account of the principle of reasonableness, specifically of restricting collection, processing and use to that which is necessary, and the principle of purpose-tying. Maximum storage periods shall be laid down and overall the legitimate interests of the companies and parties concerned taken into account. Particulars of legal persons subject to postal secrecy shall be treated as equivalent to personal data. Applicable in respect of communications to the data subjects shall be §19 of the Federal Data Protection Act and applicable to the correction, blocking and erasure of data shall be §20(1) to (7) of the Federal Data Protection Act.
(2) Companies and persons providing postal services on a commercial basis or assisting in the provision of such services may, in accordance with the ordinance referred to in (1) above, collect, process and use the data of natural and legal persons insofar as this is necessary to operate their commercial postal services, that is to say
to establish, frame the contents of and modify a contractual relationship;
to establish traffic data for contractual purposes;
to duly deliver postal items;
to duly establish, perform accounting, evaluate and verify rates chargeable for commercial postal services.
Under the powers according to sentence 1 above the collection, processing and use of data relating to the contents of postal items shall not be permitted.
(3) The companies and persons referred to in (2) above may process and use personal data they have collected for establishment, framing the contents or modification of a contractual relationship insofar as this is required for their own purposes of advertising, customer consulting or market research for the companies or persons referred to in (2) above and the customer has given their consent. Personal data on customers already collected by the companies and persons referred to in (2) above at the time of entry into force of this Act may be processed and used for the purposes referred to in sentence 1 above unless the customer raises objections. Consent is deemed given if the customer has been adequately informed of their right of objection but has not made use of this right.
(4) The commercial provision of postal services and their pricing shall not be made conditional upon the indication of personal data not required for the provision or pricing of these services. Insofar as the companies referred to in (2) above make the processing or use of a customer’s personal data conditional upon consent, they shall inform the customer appropriately of the content and scope of such consent. The intended purpose and the period of use shall be stated. Consent shall be expressly given and, as a rule, in writing. Where consent is to be given by electronic means, provision shall be made for an appropriate revocation period.
§42 Monitoring and Enforcing Obligations
(1) The Regulatory Authority may issue orders to ensure observance of the duties specified in §§33 and 39 to 41 of this Act and of the ordinance having the force of law issued by virtue of §41(1) of this Act. It may request from a party obliged the information it requires to monitor such, and check compliance with the regulations on the production sites and business premises of the party obliged. For this purpose the Regulatory Authority may request access during normal business and working hours to the production sites and business premises of the party obliged.
(2) Where the Regulatory Authority establishes non-compliance in a company with §§33 and 39 to 41 of this Act and with the ordinance having the force of law issued by virtue of §41(1) of this Act it may prohibit wholly or in part the further commercial provision of postal services, if more lenient action fails to bring about lawful conduct. The Regulatory Authority shall also have these powers when a company fails to meet its obligations as referred to in (1) above despite repeated calls to do so. §9 shall remain unaffected.
(3) Inasfar as data on natural or legal persons is collected, processed or used for the provision of postal services on a commercial basis, monitoring of these companies shall be performed by the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection as provided for by §§21 and 24 to 26(1) to (4) of the Federal Data Protection Act in place of supervision under §38 of the Federal Data Protection Act. Para (1) sentence 3 above shall apply accordingly. The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection shall direct his complaints to the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and communicate to that authority further results of his monitoring after due assessment of the circumstances.
(4) The Regulatory Authority according to (1) and the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications according to (3) above may, by means of information and monitoring, obtain knowledge of the detailed circumstances of the postal traffic of certain persons, to the extent required to discharge their particular supervisory functions. Postal secrecy according to Article 10 of the Constitution (Basic Law) shall be restricted in this regard.