So they focused on the nature of the legislation broadly as being regulatory legislation rather than true crimes, and with a public welfare orientation, and the need to encourage people who participate in that industry to abide by certain legislated norms.

It ensues from the above that, by reducing the compensation consisting of the employer’s contribution to be paid to the State for the retirement pension expenses provided for by the 1990 Law in its original wording and by substituting for this the compensation provided for by the 1996 Law, in so far as the latter compensation is lower than that previously applied, the French Republic, through its resources, has granted aid to France Télécom which distorts or threatens to distort competition and affects trade between Member States within the meaning of Article 107(1) of the TFEU at the time of the transfer of the costs instituted by the 1 ...[+++]996 Law.

If it had just said “standards”, without being specific—and in fact it was argued that the standards were the standards under the Canada Elections Act—I would have had to rule the Hubbard motion out of order.

2. Where the probation measure, the alternative sanction or the probation period has been adapted because its duration exceeds the maximum duration provided for under the law of the executing State, the duration of the adapted probation measure, alternative sanction or probation period shall not be below the maximum duration provided for equivalent offences under the law of the executing State.

Regarding mitigating circumstances, all the Member States' criminal systems allow the courts to reduce the statutory penalty for a specific offence on the basis of mitigating or exonerating circumstances provided for by the law.

For sentencing purposes, some Member States allow the courts to pass a heavier sentence in the presence of aggravating circumstances, [63] whereas others do not allow the ordinary maximum to be exceeded.