50Lastly, as the Advocate General observed in point 105 of his Opinion, the Court has previously held on many occasions that the obligation to give back an advantage improperly received by means of an irregularity is not a penalty, but simply the consequence of a finding that the conditions required to obtain the advantage derived from EU rules have not been observed, so that that advantage becomes an advantage wrongly received (see, to that effect, judgments of 4 June 2009 in Pometon, C‑158/08, EU:C:2009:349, paragraph 28; 17 September 2014 in Cruz & Companhia, C‑341/13, EU:C:2014:2230, paragraph 45 and the case-law cited, and 18 December 2014 in Somvao, C‑599/13, EU:C:2014:2462, paragraph 36). The fact pointed out by the referring court that the full amount to be repaid may, in any individual case, not coincide exactly with the loss actually incurred by the Structural Funds cannot alter that conclusion.
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