Article 78 Limitation period for the enforcement of penalties

This article establishes the rules governing how long the Commission has to enforce its penalty decisions — specifically those issued under Articles 74 and 76, which relate to fines and periodic penalty payments imposed on providers of very large online platforms and search engines.

It sets a five-year limitation period for enforcement, and then carefully defines when that clock starts, when it resets, and when it pauses.

This is a procedural companion to Article 77, which addresses the limitation period for imposing penalties, whereas Article 78 focuses on the subsequent step of actually enforcing them.

Important points:

• The Commission has a five-year window to enforce penalty decisions, starting from the day the decision becomes final.
• The five-year period restarts each time it is interrupted — for example, by the Commission or a Member State taking action to enforce payment, or by a decision varying the fine amount.
• The limitation period for enforcement is suspended for as long as a time to pay is granted, or enforcement is stayed by a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union or a national court.