Gianluca Belotti

EUJUS (Rome)
Founding Partner

Gianluca Belotti is a lawyer with over 25 years of experience in Antitrust, Competition Law, Competition Economics, State Aid, Antidumping, EU Law and Regulated Industries. Before opening his own law firm (www.eujus.eu) in June 2014, he was partner and Head of the EU and Competition practice at Hogan Lovells (http://www.hoganlovells.com) for more than 7 years in Rome and partner at SJ Berwin (now King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin, http://www.sjberwin.com) for the start-up of the Firm in Milan in 2006-2007. Previously, he led the EU & Antitrust department at Chiomenti (www.chiomenti.net) in Brussels. Before going to private practice Gianluca spent 10 years at the European Commission, where he was mainly in charge of merger control, cartel investigations and state aid cases in at DG Competition (http://ec.europa.eu/competition/index_en.html ). At EUJUS, Gianluca regularly represents industrial clients in contentious and non-contentious EU competition cases as well in cases involving the free movement of goods and capital. He has also acted for various NGOs in connection with investigations run by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Gianluca has acted for important Italian and international clients before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg as well as before national courts and is familiar with proceedings at both the European Court of Justice and the European Commission. Gianluca has advised some of the largest Italian trade associations on antitrust risk and also advises local authorities on how to grant state aid in compliance with EU regulations. Gianluca has also advised some leading companies in a variety of different sectors in EU related issues on free movement of goods, capital and excise duties.

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Articles

27664 Bulletin

Gianluca Belotti An Italian Court holds that the decision of the EC Commission to open a formal investigation procedure on the same State aid measure at stake before national courts, is not per se sufficient to prove the fumus boni iuris to grant interim relief (AirOne)

1813

Factual background The Court, in line with its previous judgment of 9 September 2008 (Case of the Court of first instance of Sassari Alghero, 09 September 2008, on the same issue), rejected the claims made by AirOne asking for a declaration of unlawful State aid granted to Ryanair and for an (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Supreme Court refers for a preliminary ruling to the EU Court of Justice the question of whether Italian tax relief measures for cooperative societies constitute State aid within Art. 87 EC (Famiglia Coop Agricola Carli Albino)

1631

Factual background Under Italian tax rules, cooperative societies benefit from significant fiscal reliefs. The ability to benefit from the reliefs is dependant upon the not-for-profit nature of the activity performed by the cooperative. Similarly to tax purposes, the not-for-profit nature is (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian State Council annuls a Ministerial Decree providing annual contributions in favour of traders on the grounds that it constitutes unlawful State aid, non notified, and for which the EU Commission opened a formal investigation procedure (Federchimica / Confagricoltura / Compag)

1548

Factual background Article 123, paragraph 1, letter a) of Law No. 388/2000 (Italian Budget Law 2001) imposed - inter alia - on all traders of fertilisers the obligation to pay, starting from 2001, an annual contribution equal to 2% of their revenues. Such contribution was intended to finance a (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Brescia Court of First Instance rules that the company beneficiary of State aid has to carry out a previous due diligence process to determine the compatibility with the criteria of a block exemption regulation (Brandt Italia)

1661

Factual background Brandt Italia S.p.A. objected to two different tax bills and summoned INPS-SCCI and the company responsible for the tax collection to the Court of first instance of Brescia. The related proceedings were joined and consequently the Court took a single decision. Brandt Italia, (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Supreme Court annuls a decision of the regional tax Commission which granted tax benefits constituting unlawful State aid and orders its recovery (Amato Law on public banking system)

2401

Factual background Law No. 218/90 (the so called “Amato Law”) provided for tax benefits in relation to restructuring operations in the public banking system. The defendant claimed that Law No. 218/90 applied to the specific circumstances in which its company was active and subsequently claimed a (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Constitutional Court holds that a regional tax provision could potentially impose a selective tax burden on non-resident undertakings and constitute unlawful State aid for undertakings domiciled in the region (Regione Sardegna)

1659

Factual background The President of the Council of Ministers (“PCM”) sought a declaration of unconstitutionality in respect of certain provisions contained in Law No. 4 of the Region of Sardinia of 11 May 2006, (Miscellaneous provisions on revenue, reclassification of costs, social policy and (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Tax Commission of Modena holds, pursuant to an EU Commission decision, that the tax exemption in favor of public utilities with a majority public capital holding constitutes unlawful State aid

1544

The Tax Commission recalled the Commission Decision 2003/193/EC concerning alleged State aid granted by Italy in the form of tax exemptions and access to subsidised loans to various public utilities. With regard to the national legal background the Commission pointed out that in Italy (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Constitutional Court dismisses State aid claim on the grounds that the provisions of measures to fight tax evasion are not selective and cannot be qualified as State aid (Regione Toscana / Emilia Romagna / Sicilia / Piemonte / Campania)

1483

Factual background In five separate applications, Tuscany, Sicily, Piedmont, Campania and Emilia-Romagna Regions (“the Regions”) questioned the constitutionality of certain Articles of Law No. 203 of 30 September 2005, converted into law, with amendments, by Law No. 248 of 2 December 2005 (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Court of First Instance of Reggio Calabria refers to a preliminary ruling on the conformity with a constitutional law which sets up a different statute of limitation for the recovery of contributions constituting unlawful aid with respect to internal rules (M.C.T. / INPS / Equitalia)

1734

Factual background The applicant was a company which had benefited from pension contribution breaks with respect to work and formation contracts (i.e. CFL, contratti di formazione e lavoro) between 1995 and 2001. The European Commission, through Decision No. 128/2000 of 11 May 1999, (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Court of First Instance of Rome confirms the recovery of an unlawful aid and holds that the statute of limitation set forth is also applicable to the recovery sought by national public bodies (Ericsson Telecomunicazioni)

1576

Factual background The applicant was a major company in the telecommunications sector, and had benefited from pension contribution breaks with respect to work and formation contracts (i.e. CFL, contratti di formazione e lavoro) between 1995 and 2001. The European Commission, through Decision (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Regional Administrative Court of Piedmont holds that the decisions of local authorities to confer the management of the service without any invitation to tender do not breach State aid rules if specific conditions are met (Municipality of San Mauro Torinese)

2549

Factual background The applicant was a municipality located in the Region of Piedmont. Pursuant to Regional Law No. 24/2002, providing that the waste disposal service shall be managed by means of compulsory consortia managed by Municipalities, the applicant joined the Consorzio di Bacino 16 (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Sardinia Administrative Court holds that when the EU Commission declares an aid to be incompatible, the unlawful aid should be recovered even though the national law that provided for the measure has not been repealed (Sardinia Lines)

1503

Factual background The applicant was a company active in the sector of water transport. On 22 July 1992 Credito Industriale Sardo S.p.A. (C.S.I.), one of the major banks of Sardinia, granted the applicant an subsidised loan under Regional Law no. 20/1951. However, the European Commission, (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Supreme Court rules that provisions on tax breaks are of strict interpretation and not subject to be extended to cases different than the one ruled (TRA.IN)

1439

Factual background Legislative Decree No. 446/1997 introduced a Regional tax on production activities. The provisions regarding the estimate assessment of the Regional taxation regime have been subject to multiple amendments which have created doubts over whether specific requirements would be (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Regional Administrative Court of Lombardia does not exclude, prima facie, that a law providing for the reduction of the airport charges in favour of air carriers could infringe Art. 87 EC on the ground that even general measures could be regarded as selective if they confer an advantage only to specific undertakings (Alitalia)

1516

Factual background The Court assessed the applicant’s request for an interim injunction in relation to the annulment of several administrative provisions (Guidance Provision by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation of December 30, 2005 and ENAC Notes 4071 and 4072 of January 20, (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Italian Supreme Court holds that a cooperative societies’ tax break should be qualified as a State aid because it involves a lower tax income into the public budget and refers the case to the EU Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling (Maricoltori Alto Adriatico)

1887

Factual background Under Italian tax rules, cooperative societies benefit from significant tax exemptions. After an inspection of the Italian tax policy, the local tax office of Monfalcone decided that Mr. F.M.’s individual income tax return, for the years 1984, 1985 and 1986, was inaccurate. (...)

Gianluca Belotti The Roma Court of First Instance admits State aid claim and grants interim relief prohibiting an undertaking - having received conditional clearance for State aid - to participate in a public tender for acquiring its competitor (AirOne / Alitalia)

1720

Factual background Alitalia, after having received rescue aid, granted by the Italian Government and authorized by the European Commission, has participated in a public tender to acquire its competitor Volare. AirOne, competitor of Alitalia, brought a claim requesting the Court of First (...)

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