59The Court has already held that the need to ensure the effective collection of a tax may constitute an overriding reason in the public interest capable of justifying a restriction on the freedom to provide services (judgments of 18 October 2012 in X, C‑498/10, EU:C:2012:635, paragraph 39, and 19 June 2014 in Strojírny Prostějov and ACO Industries Tábor, C‑53/13 and C‑80/13, EU:C:2014:2011, paragraph 46). It has also observed that the imposition of penalties, including criminal penalties, may be considered to be necessary in order to ensure compliance with national rules, subject, however, to the condition that the nature and amount of the penalty imposed is in each individual case proportionate to the gravity of the infringement which it is designed to penalise (judgment of 3 December 2014 in De Clercq and Others, C‑315/13, EU:C:2014:2408, paragraph 73 and the case-law cited).
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