69In that connection, although overriding requirements of enforcement and prevention may justify national legislation setting penalties at a certain level of severity, it is nevertheless possible that penalties determined in accordance with rules such as those applicable in the main proceedings may prove to be disproportionate and constitute an obstacle to the said freedom, inasmuch as they include flat-rate penalties fixed solely on the basis of the vehicle's cubic capacity, without account being taken of the vehicle's age, and increased duty which may be as much as ten times the charges at issue. A penalty based on the sole criterion of cubic capacity could be disproportionate to the gravity of the infringement, in particular where it is associated with another heavy penalty, imposed in respect of the same infringement. The same could be true of a penalty amounting to a multiple of the charges at issue, for example ten times such charges.
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