Recital 37

In order to ensure that fundamental rights are fully protected, any validation of European Production Orders or of European Preservation Orders by judicial authorities should in principle be obtained before the order concerned is issued. Exceptions to that principle should only be made in validly established emergency cases when requesting the production of subscriber data or data requested for the sole purpose of identifying the user, as defined in this Regulation, or the preservation of data, where it is not possible to obtain prior validation by the judicial authority in time, in particular because the validating authority cannot be reached to obtain validation and the threat is so imminent that immediate action has to be taken. However, such exceptions should only be made where the authority issuing the order concerned could issue an order in a similar domestic case under national law without prior validation.