Harald Weiss works as Counsel with Gleiss Lutz in there Brussels office advises on all aspects of German and European competition law, including antitrust, private antitrust litigation, merger control and EU state aid law. His practice also includes advice on EU law. Harald is frequently representing clients before the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU.
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The Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) clarified that the legal situation prior to the grant of the unlawful State aid is decisive for its recovery, in particular the scope and method of the recovery. The Federal Court of Justice also held that an alleged violation of the (...)
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After the opening decision for a formal state aid review has been issued, German courts may in principle not deviate from the Commission’s preliminary assessment of the state aid character. In cases where courts have doubts about the preliminary assessment, they must request the Commission’s (...)
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The German Federal Administrative Court (“BVerwG”) ruled that administrative courts are obliged to independently review the question, whether an economic aid meets all the requirements of a notifiable State aid within the meaning of Article 107 TFEU. This obligation is not limited by the fact (...)
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The Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) ruled that Article 108(3), Sentence 3 TFEU obliges national courts to interpret and apply the concept of State aid under Article 107(1) TFEU autonomously and comprehensively. According to the Federal Administrative Court, national (...)
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Under certain circumstances, undertakings can demand the recovery of state aid granted to their competitors in violation of the prohibition of implementation under European law in Art. 108 para. 3 sentence 3 TFEU. The BGH considered the implementation ban to be a protective law within the (...)
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THE PROHIBITION OF IMPLEMENTATION UNDER STATE AID LAW IN ARTICLE 108(3)(3) TFEU IS A PROTECTIVE LAW IN FAVOUR OF THE COMPETITORS OF THE AID RECIPIENT ++Tags+++Tags+++Tags+++ German Federal Court, Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn, I ZR 136/09, 10.2.2011 (German) Under certain circumstances, (...)
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The Federal Administrative Court has ruled on the conditions under which the levy of a special-purpose association can be regarded as aid within the meaning of European law. According to its judgement of 16 December 2010, a levy imposed by a special-purpose association exclusively to (...)
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The Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof) clarified that it was prevented from re-assessing the lawfulness of the Commission decision ordering recovery of aid, and in particular its finding that the relevant tax provisions involve State aid. It ruled that Germany’s obligation to recover (...)
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The Federal Court of Justice has ruled that the obligation to recover aid is only effectively and immediately implemented if insolvency claims are treated as non-subordinated liabilities. Accordingly, it found that the primacy of EU law must lead to the non-application of a statutory provision (...)
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The Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court has ruled that a Commission’s negative decision ordering the recovery of aid may be implemented and enforced unilaterally by German authorities by means of an administrative act (i.e. based on public law) even if the aid were granted on the (...)
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The Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) rejected the constitutional complaint (Verfassungsbeschwerde) filed against the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) of 23 April 1998, 3 C 15/97 – Alcan. It held that this judgment and the CJEU’s (...)
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The Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) ruled that if a funding decision obliges its addressee to forward the funding to a third party in accordance with its intended purpose and to provide a corresponding declaration of commitment, a withdrawal decision ordering the (...)
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The Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) implemented guidance received from the CJEU and confirmed that national procedural rules and safeguards (such as time limits for the withdrawal of illegal administrative acts, the protection of legitimate expectations, the principle (...)
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The German Federal Administrative Court decided, that the withdrawal of aid due to a violation of Community law is in principle governed by national law. The beneficiary’s trust in the existence of the administrative act is generally outweighed by the public interest in the withdrawal, if the (...)
