Article 53General provisions

1. Member States shall ensure that obliged entities can be held liable for breaches of Regulations (EU) 2024/1624 and (EU) 2023/1113 in accordance with this Section.

2. Without prejudice to the right of Member States to provide for and impose criminal sanctions, Member States shall lay down rules on pecuniary sanctions and administrative measures and ensure that supervisors may impose such pecuniary sanctions and apply administrative measures with respect to breaches of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 or Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 and shall ensure that they are enforced. Any sanction imposed or measure applied pursuant to this Section shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

3. By way of derogation from paragraph 2, where the legal system of a Member State does not provide for administrative sanctions, this Article may be applied in such a manner that the pecuniary sanction is initiated by the supervisor and imposed by a judicial authority, while ensuring that those legal remedies are effective and have an equivalent effect to the pecuniary sanctions imposed by supervisors. In any event, the pecuniary sanctions imposed shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

The Member States referred to in the first subparagraph shall communicate to the Commission the measures of national law which they adopt pursuant to this paragraph by 10 July 2027 and, without delay, any subsequent amendments thereto.

4. In the event of a breach of Regulations (EU) 2024/1624 and (EU) 2023/1113, Member States shall ensure that where obligations apply to legal persons, pecuniary sanctions can be imposed and administrative measures can be applied not only to the legal person, but also to the senior management and to other natural persons who under national law are responsible for the breach.

Member States shall ensure that where supervisors identify breaches which are subject to criminal sanctions, they inform the authorities competent for investigating and prosecuting criminal activities in a timely manner.

5. In accordance with this Directive and with national law, pecuniary sanctions shall be imposed and administrative measures shall be applied in any of the following ways:

(a)

directly by the supervisors;

(b)

in cooperation between the supervisors and other authorities;

(c)

under the responsibility of the supervisors by delegation to other authorities;

(d)

The article continues in the official text.