Article 16

Without prejudice to Article 31 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555 of the European Parliament and of the Council , Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of this Regulation. Those penalties shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

Member States shall ensure that infringements of this Regulation by qualified and non-qualified trust service providers be subject to administrative fines of a maximum of at least: (a) EUR 5000000 where the trust service provider is a natural person; or (b) where the trust service provider is a legal person, EUR 5000000 or 1 % of the total worldwide annual turnover of the undertaking to which the trust service provider belonged in the financial year preceding the year in which the infringement occurred, whichever is higher.

Depending on the legal system of the Member States, the rules on administrative fines may be applied in such a manner that the fine is initiated by the competent supervisory body and imposed by competent national courts. The application of such rules in those Member States shall ensure that those legal remedies are effective and have an equivalent effect to administrative fines imposed directly by supervisory authorities.