Criminal Liability for Information Errors

This provision makes it a crime to provide false or misleading information to the NCA, with penalties including up to 3 years imprisonment—even for negligent errors. The scope is extremely broad ("concerning matters relating to the objects and functions of the Authority"), covering the NCA's extensive mandate across telecommunications, digital services, cybersecurity, and consumer protection. This creates severe operational risk: businesses can face criminal prosecution for inadvertent mistakes, good-faith disagreements about facts, or reasonable reliance on third-party information. Most democracies reserve criminal penalties for intentional fraud and use civil/administrative penalties for information errors. Combined with the NCA's broad enforcement powers in 53, this provision creates asymmetric regulatory risk that will increase compliance costs and discourage transparent engagement with regulators.