1. Member States shall appoint one or more competent authorities and shall notify the Commission of the appointment of such authorities, giving details of any division of powers among them. Member States shall also ensure that this Directive is applied.
2. The Member States shall ensure that the competent authorities have the necessary powers to carry out their task.
3. Where particular requirements of this Directive are unsuited to a company's activities or circumstances, the competent authorities shall ensure that suitable adaptations are made to such requirements.
4. The competent authorities may authorize the omission from the half-yearly report of certain information provided for in this Directive if they consider that disclosure of such information would be contrary to the public interest or seriously detrimental to the company, provided that, in the latter case, such omission would not be likely to mislead the public with regard to facts and circumstances knowledge of which