Article 75 — Right to be heard for the imposition of fines or periodic penalty payments

1. Before adopting a decision pursuant to Article 72, the Commission shall ensure that the economic operators concerned have been given the opportunity to submit observations on: (a) the preliminary findings of the Commission, including any matter in relation to which the Commission has raised objections; (b) the measures that the Commission may intend to take in view of the preliminary findings pursuant to point (a) of this paragraph. 2. The economic operators concerned may submit to the Commission their observations on the Commission’s preliminary findings within a time limit which shall be fixed by the Commission in its preliminary findings, and which may not be less than 14 working days. 3. The Commission shall base its imposition of fines or periodic penalty payments only on objections on which the economic operators concerned have been able to comment. 4. Where the Commission has informed the economic operators concerned of its preliminary findings as referred to in paragraph 1, it shall give access, if so requested, to the Commission’s file under the terms of a negotiated disclosure, subject to the legitimate interest of economic operators in the protection of their business secrets, or in order to preserve business secrets or other confidential information of any person. The right of access to the file shall not extend to confidential information and internal documents of the Commission or the authorities of the Member States, in particular to correspondence between the Commission and the authorities of the Member States. Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent the Commission from disclosing and using information necessary to prove an infringement.