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1. Without prejudice to the obligations of Member States under Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (), Member States shall lay down rules on penalties applicable to infringements of national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive and shall take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. The penalties provided for shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

2. The penalties referred to in paragraph 1 shall include administrative financial penalties that effectively deprive those that committed the infringement of the economic benefits derived from their infringements. For the most serious infringements committed by a legal person, the maximum amount of the administrative financial penalties referred to in the first subparagraph shall be at least 3 % of the annual Union turnover of the operator in the financial year preceding the year in which the fine is imposed. Member States may also, or alternatively, use criminal penalties, provided that they are equivalently effective, proportionate and dissuasive to the administrative financial penalties referred to in this Article.

3. Member States shall ensure that the penalties established pursuant to this Article give due regard to the following, as applicable:

(a) the nature, gravity, and extent of the infringement;

(b) the population or the environment affected by the infringement, bearing in mind the impact of the infringement on the objective of achieving a high level of protection of human health and the environment;

(c) the repetitive or one-off character of the infringement.

4. Member States shall without undue delay notify the Commission of the rules and measures referred to in paragraph 1 and of any subsequent amendments affecting them.