Limitation period for the enforcement of penalties | Prighter

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Chapter 4 (Art. 49 — 88) — Implementation, cooperation, penalties and enforcement

SECTION 4: Supervision, investigation, enforcement and monitoring in respect of providers of very large online platforms and of very large online search engines

Article 78

Limitation period for the enforcement of penalties

The power of the Commission to enforce decisions taken pursuant to Articles 74 and 76 shall be subject to a limitation period of five years.
Time shall begin to run on the day on which the decision becomes final.
The limitation period for the enforcement of penalties shall be interrupted:
- (a) by notification of a decision varying the original amount of the fine or periodic penalty payment or refusing an application for variation;
- (b) by any action of the Commission, or of a Member State acting at the request of the Commission, designed to enforce payment of the fine or periodic penalty payment.
Each interruption shall start time running afresh.
The limitation period for the enforcement of penalties shall be suspended for so long as:
- (a) time to pay is allowed;
- (b) enforcement of payment is suspended pursuant to a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union or to a decision of a national court.

Details

Recitals

Recital 144

Recital 144

Compliance with the relevant obligations imposed under this Regulation should be enforceable by means of fines and periodic penalty payments. To that end, appropriate levels of fines and periodic penalty payments should also be laid down for non-compliance with the obligations and breach of the procedural rules, subject to appropriate limitation periods in accordance with the principles of proportionality and . The Commission and the relevant national authorities should coordinate their enforcement efforts in order to ensure that those principles are respected. In particular, the Commission should take into account any fines and penalties imposed on the same legal person for the same facts through a final decision in proceedings relating to an infringement of other Union or national rules, so as to ensure that the overall fines and penalties imposed are proportionate and correspond to the seriousness of the infringements committed. All decisions taken by the Commission under this Regulation are subject to review by the Court of Justice of the European Union in accordance with the TFEU. The Court of Justice of the European Union should have unlimited jurisdiction in respect of fines and penalty payments in accordance with Article 261 TFEU.

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