evidence: In the summer of 2023, the European Union ("EU") adopted two legal acts that are intended to improve cross-border access to electronic evidence for judicial authorities in criminal proceedings. This refers to digital data that can be used to investigate and prosecute criminal offences, such as customer identity information, IP addresses and location data, but also e-mails, text messages or photos. [...] Electronic evidence is becoming increasingly important in criminal investigations. According to the Council of the EU, more than 50% of all criminal investigations in the EU involve a cross-border request to obtain electronic evidence. [...] The Production Order allows judicial authorities in one Member State to request electronic evidence directly from a service provider who is established or represented in another EU Member State. The service provider then has a period of 10 days, or just eight hours in so-called emergency cases, to comply with the order and hand over the data. Such a Production Order can be issued not only by the judicial authorities, but can also be requested by a suspect or accused person in criminal proceedings under the existing rights of defence. According to the text of the e-Evidence Regulation, orders "may also be issued in proceedings relating to a criminal offence for which a legal person could be held liable or punished in the issuing State". It is quite possible that the judicial authorities will interpret the e-Evidence Regulation in a way that where there is no corporate criminal law (as in Germany), it can also be applied in administrative fine proceedings against corporates in which criminal offences are at issue.