General rules concerning non-compliance
Article 38
1. The ‘reoccurrence’ of a non-compliance means the non-compliance with the same requirement or standard determined more than once within a consecutive period of three calendar years, provided that the beneficiary has been informed of a previous non-compliance and, as the case may be, has had the possibility to take the necessary measures to terminate that previous non-compliance. For the purpose of determining the reoccurrence of a non-compliance, non-compliances determined in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 shall be taken into account and, in particular, GAEC 3, as listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, shall be considered equivalent to SMR 2 of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 in its version in force on 21 December 2013. 2. The ‘extent’ of a non-compliance shall be determined taking account, in particular, of whether the non-compliance has a far-reaching impact or whether it is limited to the farm itself. 3. The ‘severity’ of a non-compliance shall depend, in particular, on the importance of the consequences of the non-compliance taking account of the aims of the requirement or standard concerned. 4. Whether a non-compliance is of ‘permanence’ shall depend, in particular, on the length of time for which the effect lasts or the potential for terminating those effects by reasonable means. 5. For the purposes of this Chapter, non-compliances shall be deemed to be ‘determined’ if they are established as a consequence of any kind of controls carried out in accordance with this Regulation or after having been brought to the attention of the competent control authority or, where applicable, the paying agency, in whatever other way.