The fines imposed by the European Commission for violations of European antitrust law have come under increasing criticism, especially in German-language literature. Against the background of assigning these fines to the law of administrative offenses, Alexander Koch looks at them according to criminal law standards and expands the previous perspective by making a legal comparison with the administrative sanctions of Dutch law. In the Netherlands, fines have recently been codified as a separate administrative instrument in the General Administrative Law. The author works out the gradual formation of standards for these sanctions. Art. 6 ECHR, which also applies to punitive administrative sanctions, does not contradict this either. The thesis concludes with a re-reflection of European antitrust law against the background of the settlement.