Targeted Financial Sanctions: Criminal in Nature?

Several rights guaranteed by the ECHR and the CFR are applicable only in case of a ‘criminal charge’. Therefore, it is important to know whether, or not, a certain sanction is criminal in nature. It is equally important that the CJEU qualifies the same sanctions as criminal in nature as the ECtHR does, since Article 52(3) CFR states that the meaning and scope of the rights provided by the CFR must be at least the same as the meaning and scope of corresponding rights provided by the ECHR. This article provides an analysis of both Courts’ case law on the qualification of targeted financial sanctions (criminal in nature or not?) and examines whether significant differences can be identified. One of the conclusions is that the Courts might differ on the qualification of administrative fines, but that future case law will have to elucidate whether this is indeed the case.