29It follows from all the foregoing that, even though the penalties established by Member States in order to counter infringements of harmonised VAT rules fall within their procedural and institutional autonomy, that autonomy is nevertheless limited by, first, the principle of equivalence, which means that those penalties must be analogous to those applicable to infringements of national law of a similar nature and importance that affect national financial interests, and, second, the principle of effectiveness, which requires that such penalties be effective and dissuasive, in addition to the principle of proportionality, the application of which is not in point in the present case.
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