Article 24 Requirements for qualified trust service providers

(1) When issuing a qualified certificate for a trust service, a qualified trust service provider shall verify, by appropriate means ..., the identity and, if applicable, any specific attributes of the natural or legal person to whom the qualified certificate is issued.

The information referred to in the first subparagraph shall be verified by the qualified trust service provider either directly or by relying on a third party ...:

(a) by the physical presence of the natural person or of an authorised representative of the legal person; or

(b) remotely, using electronic identification means, for which prior to the issuance of the qualified certificate, a physical presence of the natural person or of an authorised representative of the legal person was ensured and which meets the requirements for the assurance levels ‘substantial’ or ‘high’ under the equivalent EU law so far as relating to electronic identification schemes (or would meet those requirements if they were not predicated on the doing of anything in, or by, a member State); or

(c) by means of a certificate of a qualified electronic signature or of a qualified electronic seal issued in compliance with point (a) or (b); or

(d) by using other identification methods ... which provide equivalent assurance in terms of reliability to physical presence. The equivalent assurance shall be confirmed by a conformity assessment body.

(2) A qualified trust service provider providing qualified trust services shall:

(a) inform the supervisory body of any change in the provision of its qualified trust services and an intention to cease those activities;

(b) employ staff and, if applicable, subcontractors who possess the necessary expertise, reliability, experience, and qualifications and who have received appropriate training regarding security and personal data protection rules and shall apply administrative and management procedures which correspond to European or international standards;

(c) with regard to the risk of liability for damages in accordance with Article 13, maintain sufficient financial resources and/or obtain appropriate liability insurance ...;

(d) before entering into a contractual relationship, inform, in a clear and comprehensive manner, any person seeking to use a qualified trust service of the precise terms and conditions regarding the use of that service, including any limitations on its use;

(e) use trustworthy systems and products that are protected against modification and ensure the technical security and reliability of the processes supported by them;

(f) use trustworthy systems to store data provided to it, in a verifiable form so that:

they are publicly available for retrieval only where the consent of the person to whom the data relates has been obtained,

only authorised persons can make entries and changes to the stored data,

the data can be checked for authenticity;

(g) take appropriate measures against forgery and theft of data;

(h) record and keep accessible for an appropriate period of time, including after the activities of the qualified trust service provider have ceased, all relevant information concerning data issued and received by the qualified trust service provider, in particular, for the purpose of providing evidence in legal proceedings and for the purpose of ensuring continuity of the service. Such recording may be done electronically;

(i) have an up-to-date termination plan to ensure continuity of service in accordance with provisions verified by the supervisory body under point (i) of Article 17(4);

(j) ensure lawful processing of personal data ...;

(k) in case of qualified trust service providers issuing qualified certificates, establish and keep updated a certificate database.

(3) If a qualified trust service provider issuing qualified certificates decides to revoke a certificate, it shall register such revocation in its certificate database and publish the revocation status of the certificate in a timely manner, and in any event within 24 hours after the receipt of the request. The revocation shall become effective immediately upon its publication.

(4) With regard to paragraph 3, qualified trust service providers issuing qualified certificates shall provide to any relying party information on the validity or revocation status of qualified certificates issued by them. This information shall be made available at least on a per certificate basis at any time and beyond the validity period of the certificate in an automated manner that is reliable, free of charge and efficient.

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