On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered judgments ordering Ireland and Romania to pay lump sum penalties of €2 million and €3 million, respectively, for failing to adopt measures transposing a European Union anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing directive by the June 2017 deadline, and for failing to notify the European Commission of their having done so, as required by Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Specifically, the two EU member states were found not to have fulfilled the requirement to transpose into law Directive 2015/849, which is designed to prevent the use of the EU financial system for money laundering and terrorist financing. The EC initiated actions against Ireland and Romania in August 2018, seeking both a lump sum payment and daily penalties for failure to comply with the requirement. The EC later withdrew the application for daily penalties since both Ireland and Romania had by then promulgated statutes compliant with Directive 2015/849.