Jacques Derenne

In 2008, Germany and Denmark approved the creation of a submerged rail link between the two countries connecting an arm of the sea between the island of Fehmarn in Germany and the island of Lolland in Denmark [hereafter, the "fixed link"]. History of the dispute This infrastructure is (...)

On October 6, 2021, the Court of Justice, in its Grand Chamber, put an end to this contentious saga regarding the amortization of the financial goodwill resulting from the acquisition of a stake of at least 5% in a "foreign company" by a company taxable in Spain. The Court dismisses eight (...)

This is a continuation of one of the "tax ruling" cases, here pitting the Commission against Belgium and several multinationals, including Magnetrol International. On 16 September 2021, the Court of Justice sets aside the judgment of the General Court of 14 February 2019 and remits the case (...)

The two judgments of the same day concern the same case, namely the consequences of aid granted by the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate to the public owners of the German motor racing circuit, Nürburgring (comprising a new circuit created in 1985 for the return of Formula 1 and the old circuit, (...)

The distinct but complementary roles of the Commission and the national courts have been highlighted by the case law of the Court of Justice. Introduction It is worth recalling here the terms of the 1996 SFEI decision: [The] ban on State aid in principle is neither absolute nor unconditional (...)

The Court of First Instance is continuing its series of judgments on the actions for annulment brought by Ryanair (sometimes flanked by Malta Air or Laudamotion, as in the present case, its subsidiaries) against the Commission’s decisions approving ’Covid-19’ aid to various airlines which provide, (...)

On 14 July 2021, the Court of First Instance dismissed an action brought by Nike against the Commission’s decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure in thetax rulingcase concerning the Nike group. According to the Court of First Instance, the Commission complied with the procedural (...)

The Commission adopted on 4 October 2018 a decision (SA.44865) concluding that no aid was involved for a German measure in favour of beverage stores located on the German border. Background It concerned the non-imposition of a deposit obligation on certain drinks packaging sold by German (...)

The Commission adopted on 31 July 2020 a decision not to raise objections to a Spanish scheme providing for recapitalisation measures to support systemic and strategic companies for the Spanish economy. Background The decision (SA.57659) is based on Article 107(3)(b) TFEU and on the ’Temporary (...)

On 20 June 2018, the Commission decided that the Engie group had benefited from state aid through two sets of Luxembourg tax rulings (SA.44888). Background Starting in September 2008, Luxembourg issued several tax rulings concerning the tax treatment of two similar financial transactions (...)

On 12 May 2021, the Court of First Instance delivered two judgments concerning taxrulings granted by Luxembourg. Background One annulled the contested decision in the Amazon case at issue here, and the other dismissed the appeal in the Engie case ([ see, comm. J. Derenne & C. (...)

On 19 April 2021, the Commission adopted revised guidelines on national regional aid (the ’Regional Aid Guidelines’). The revised guidelines will enter into force on 1 January 2022. They are the first set of revised state aid rules following the announcement of the European Green Deal and the (...)

On the same day, 14 April 2021, the Court of First Instance delivered its first three judgments on actions brought by Ryanair against Commission decisions granting individual measures to airlines. The three judgments will be examined together because the pleas put forward by the Irish company (...)

The national disputes leading to the references for preliminary rulings in question concern a request for payment of fees sent by Poste Italiane to two concessionaires responsible for collecting a municipal property tax (l’imposta comunale sugli immobili, [’ICI’]) for the management of their (...)

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 450 "no objections" decisions (decisions in preliminary examination phase) have been adopted by the Commission to approve aid schemes and individual aid notified by Member States (see, in particular, Jacques Derenne, Catalina Chilaru, (...)

On 19 March 2020, the European Commission adopted an interpretative communication on the application of Article 107(3)(b) TFEU (with elements touching on Articles 107(2)(b) and 107(3)(c) TFEU), entitled "Temporary Framework on State aid measures to support the economy in the current context of (...)

On 10 December 2020, the Court held, on appeal, that the Court of First Instance was entitled to dismiss an action against a Commission decision applying the private investor test to aid granted in the form of increases in the capital of a company responsible for groundhandling at two airports. (...)

A conversation with : Thierry Boillot Director of Competition, AFEC - AFJE, Paris Muriel Chagny Professor, University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Paris-Saclay) and President, AFEC, Paris Jacques Derenne Partner, Sheppard Mullin, Brussels and Professor, University of Liège Frédéric (...)

This case concerns Articles 3 and 6 of Regulation 1407/2013 of 18 December 2013 [" de minimisRegulation"]. Background Zennaro Giuseppe Legnami ["the company"] complained of the refusal by the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work in Italy ["INAIL"] to pay financing in its (...)

This judgment is the latest in a series of judgments handed down by the European courts concerning the specific features of the French legal status of public industrial and commercial establishments ["EPIC"]. EPICs are public establishments which, in France, are not subject to insolvency (...)

On 24 September 2020, the Court of Justice delivered a preliminary ruling (on a reference from the Berlin Administrative Court) on the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") within the meaning of Article 3(4) of Annex I to Regulation No 651/2014 declaring certain categories (...)

Continuation of the saga of tax ruling / tax rescripts and state aid cases. After the annulment of the ’excess profits’ decision (Belgium - judgment under appeal and annulled decision in the process of being overturned) and the ’Starbucks’ decision (Netherlands - no overhaul in sight), it is now (...)

This judgment delivered on appeal (annulment of the judgment under appeal) by the Court of Justice, sitting as a Grand Chamber, makes an important contribution to the contours of the concept of economic activity (and therefore of undertaking) in the context of compulsory health insurance (...)

The annotated judgment is delivered on appeal, on 4 June 2020, by the Court of Justice, which sets aside the contested judgment of the Court of First Instance of 25 April 2018 and annuls the two Commission decisions in question in so far as they order the suspension of the Hungarian measures (...)

The unexpected shock provoked by the Covid-19 crisis and the measures taken to limit the spread of the pandemic have affected the functioning of many markets. Throughout the world, competition authorities which, in the last decade, had been enforcing their laws in the context of steady economic (...)

The Commission’s DG Competition has organised itself in a similar way to its response to the 2008 crisis, setting up a specific email address and telephone number for Member States (https://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/what_is_new/covid_19.html; +32 2 296 52 00; COMP-COVID@ec.europa.eu), (...)

The annotated judgment is again a ’judgment on failure to fulfil obligations’ ordering a Member State (Italy in this case) to pay a financial penalty (EUR 7.5 million) and a daily penalty payment (EUR 80 000) for failure to comply fully with a judgment on failure to comply with a negative (...)

On 4 March 2020, the Court delivered two judgments in which it dismissed and declared inadmissible the action brought by Buonotourist and CSTP Azienda della Mobilita against the judgments delivered by the Court of First Instance on 11 July 2018. As the two judgments are identical, reference (...)

The annotated preliminary ruling recalls the conditions for classifying a State measure as State aid and confirms that measures adopted in order to respond to the financial difficulties encountered by a public undertaking in the railway sector may satisfy that classification. It is for the (...)

The case in question concerns a concession, prior to Poland’s accession to the European Union, for the construction and operation of a toll motorway for a period of forty years. In return for its costs and risks, the concessionaire (Autostrada Wielkopolska) was entitled to collect the tolls paid (...)

In two much-awaited judgments of 24 September 2019, the Court of First Instance recalls the Commission’s competence to apply the State aid rules to tax ruling decisions granted by Member States to multinationals, while emphasising the scope and legal nature of the arm’s length principle. In so (...)

As in the case of port companies in France (see Trib. EU, 30 April 2019, Chambre de commerce et d’industrie métropolitaine Bretagne-Ouest (port of Brest), Case T-754/17, EU:T:2019:270 and Trib. EU, 30 April 2019, Union des ports de France - UPF, Case T-747/17, EU:T:2019:271, Concurrences No. (...)

It is not possible here to review all the facts and developments in this lengthy process or to consider all the substantive issues that have been addressed since 2006 in this series of cases. For its background, it is useful to refer to the previous observations in Concurrences CFI, 12 December (...)

On 15 July 2019, the Commission published its annual report on competition policy. The following few points can be made with regard to State aid. The challenge of modernising the rules The Commission recalls that the introduction of the new General Block Exemption Regulation in 2014 and its (...)

The case concerns the Nürburgring motor racing circuit (German Land of Rhineland-Palatinate), its leisure park and its hotels and restaurants. The author of these lines is in no way involved in the affair, but he is nonetheless concerned, as an amateur racing driver, who for some years now has (...)

The Court has published on its website its annual report for the year 2018. It is an opportunity to review the main trends in case-law as "felt" by the Court and the Court of First Instance and some interesting statistics. Some information on state aid will be highlighted. Court of Justice (...)

This judgment is interesting because it addresses an issue rarely clarified by the case law: the limits of the condition affecting trade between Member States for the existence of State aid under Article 107(1) TFEU. The Commission had adopted a decision concluding that no aid was involved on (...)

These cases relating to the exemption from corporation tax of ports in France have given rise in particular to an interesting admissibility analysis. The Commission has adopted a decision ordering France to abolish the exemption from corporation tax enjoyed by autonomous ports and chambers of (...)

It is in Grand Chamber formation that the Court confirms and clarifies certain fundamental principles relating to the obligations of national administrative authorities faced with unlawful aid. Most of these principles were already contained in the case-law or could very easily be deduced from (...)

This is the first judgment of a European court concerning the famous Commission decisions attacking "tax rulings", advance tax rulings or even "rescrits fiscaux", when these decisions appear to deviate manifestly from the principles generally accepted, according to the Commission, in the field (...)

In a much-awaited judgment of 19 December 2018, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice delivered a judgment on a reference for a preliminary ruling, refusing to classify as a ’general measure’ the exemption from German real estate acquisition tax for the benefit of certain conversion (...)

By judgment of 13 December 2018, the Court of First Instance dismissed the action for annulment brought by the Comune di Milano (T-167/13) against Commission Decision (EU) 2015/1225 (the ’contested decision’), holding that the capital increases made by SEA to Sea Handling for each of the (...)

By judgment of 13 December 2018, the Court of First Instance allowed the action for annulment brought by AlzChem AG (T-284/15) against Commission Decision (EU) 2015/1826 (the ’contested decision’). The contested decision found that the granting of strategic company status to NCHZ had protected it (...)

By five judgments delivered on 13 December 2018, the Court of First Instance dismissed the actions for annulment brought by the airlines Ryanair (T-165/16, T-53/16, T-111/15, T-165/15) and Transavia (T-591/15) against the Commission’s decisions considering that several airport and marketing (...)

By order of 13 December 2018, the Court of Justice dismissed as manifestly unfounded the appeal against the judgment of the Court of First Instance in the EDF recapitalisation case, thus bringing to an end a judicial saga lasting almost 15 years. Litigation history It will be recalled that (...)

The ’ARCO’ case has multiple ramifications following a Commission decision of 3 July 2014 on State aid SA.33927 (guarantee scheme protecting the shareholdings of individual members of financial cooperatives - OJ 2014 L 284, p. 53 - ’2014 Decision’). This case has already been commented on several (...)

On 15 November 2018, the Tribunal delivered several judgements following the World Duty Free judgement of 21 December 2016 (cases C-20/15 P and C-21/15 P - see our commentary in ConcurrencesNo. 1-2017, pp. 153-163.), which had set aside two judgments of the Court of First Instance (Judgments of (...)

The Court’s judgment of 19 September 2018, handed down on appeal by the Commission, is the continuation of the saga between the French State and the Commission concerning the status of public industrial and commercial establishments ("EPICs"). Litigation history It will be recalled that French (...)

These two judgements concern the same case which gave rise to a Commission decision declaring incompatible with the internal market in 2015 the payment (by virtue of a judgement of the Italian Council of State) of additional compensation for the provision of bus passenger transport services. (...)

The selectivity condition for a State measure conferring a tax advantage to be classified as State aid always raises problems of interpretation and consistency in the case law. This case is a good example of the application of these principles which can serve as a guide for legislators taking (...)

The commented judgment examines interesting State aid procedural issues related to the scope of the suspensory effect of a measure of a Member State not notified to the Commission and subject to both a decision to open the formal investigation procedure and a suspension injunction. The judgment (...)

The difficulties of Sernam, the parcel and pallet express transport company wholly owned by the Société nationale des chemins de français (SNCF), have generated many State aid issues since 2001. Legal and factual context A first Commission decision (Sernam 1, 23 May 2001, NN 122/2000) approved (...)

This is the "ARCO affair", well known in Belgium as a government matter because of the political (and legal: state guarantee) promises made imprudently (and illegally) to a category of cooperators who, through their "savings-investment", financed the debacle of the Belgian-French bank Dexia (...)

A Commission decision did not classify as State aid a series of Slovak measures (capital increase, debt repayment, grants and risk equalisation scheme) in favour of a Slovak health insurance organisation: according to the Commission, this organisation is not an undertaking within the meaning of (...)

The change in EDF’s status gave rise to a major dispute before the courts of the European Union. Legal and factual context Summary of Litigation History It was already on 16 December 2003 that the Commission decided that the operation to restructure EDF’s balance sheet and increase its capital (...)

This case raises interesting discussions on the criteria of advantage and selectivity as well as on the incentive and necessity of aid. The Court of First Instance dismisses an action for annulment of a Commission decision of 23 March 2015 concerning State aid SA.28876 granted by Greece to (...)

By its judgment of 23 November 2017, the Court of Justice dismissed an appeal by Servizi assicurativi del commercio estero SpA (SACE) and Sace BT SpA against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 25 June 2015 (Case T-305/13; see J. Derenne and D. Dauchez) which had annulled, very (...)

On 9 November 2017, the Court of Justice handed down three essentially identical judgments definitively ending the various disputes involving various measures taken by the Danish authorities in relation to the public broadcaster TV2/Danmark. The case mainly concerns the concept of state (...)

The series of Frucona cases will not go unnoticed. These judgements have already left their mark on the interpretation of the "private creditor" test for state aid (now generically referred to by the Commission as a "market economy operator" - see Commission Communication on the concept of (...)

From 2001 to 2005, the Belgian authorities financed tests for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), made compulsory by Regulation No 999/2001 of 29 May 2001 (OJ 2001 L 147, p. 1). By Decision 2011/678/EU of 29 June 2011 (OJ 2011 L 274, p. 36), the Commission found, inter alia, that that (...)

Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Juzgado de lo Contencioso-Administrativo No 4 de Madrid, Spain, was made to the Court of Justice of the European Communities by judgment of that court in a Grand Chamber on the question whether the tax exemptions granted by Spain to the Catholic Church (...)

This case (v. equals, Trib. EU, 6 April 2017, Regione autonoma della Sardegna, Case T-219/14 - this note refers only to judgment T-220/14) concerns the application of the conditions for a State measure aimed at compensating for the costs of a service of general economic interest not to be (...)

We have commented on the judgment of the Court of First Instance in this case in Concurrences No. 4-2015, pp. 169-170 (Trib. UE, 24 Sept. 2015, TV2 Danmark v Commission, Case T-674/11). The judgment on appeal does not provide any fundamental elements in relation to the judgment of the Court of (...)

We have commented on the three judgments of the Court of First Instance of 16 October 2014, one of which is being undertaken in the context of the appeal giving rise to this judgment of the Court of 1 February 2017 (see Concurrenceson Trib. EU, 16 October 2014, Alcoa Trasformazioni v. (...)

The condition of selectivity of an aid measure within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU is probably the most problematic condition in certain circumstances, in particular as regards tax measures. Introduction Neither the Commission’s decision-making practice nor European case law has (...)

As previously commented (Concurrences No. 4-2014, pp. 198-199), this case is quite specific in two respects: firstly, it concerns the annulment, which is quite rare, by the Court of First Instance of a decision to initiate the formal investigation procedure and, secondly, this annulment is (...)

By this judgment of 30 November 2016, the Court of Justice marks the end of the case of the French Government’s public declarations in favour of France Télécom (France Télécom), which has been before the European Courts for more than ten years (see our comment on the second annulment by the Court of (...)

Pollmeier Massivholz is a German company that operates several sawmills near the border of the state of Hesse. Background to the case In 2007, the Commission received a complaint from Pollmeier Massivholz alleging unlawful aid to support the establishment of a new sawmill in the Land of (...)

This judgment of the Court of First Instance is of particular relevance to the issue at hand: the finding of no State aid for failure to transfer State resources on the basis of the PreussenElektra case law, which does not often find cases that lend themselves to that conclusion (judgment of 13 (...)

This preliminary ruling deals with the validity of the burden-sharing measures (or lease-in measures) provided for in paragraphs 40 to 46 of the Commission communication on the banking sector (Communication from the Commission on the application of State aid rules to State aid to banks in the (...)

This judgment of the Court of First Instance returns to the question of the applicability of compound interest in State aid cases. It was not a question of examining the lawfulness of a decision ordering the recovery of aid in respect of which the question of the nature of the interest arose, (...)

Background In its judgment of 26 May 2016, the Court of First Instance was again called upon to rule on the specific features of the French legal status of public industrial and commercial establishments ("EPICs"). These establishments have the particularity, as legal persons governed by (...)

By its judgment of 22 April 2016, on a second reference from the Court of Justice after annulment, the Court of First Instance has brought to a close a series of judgments which had caused confusion on several fundamental issues since 2007. The case concerns exemptions from excise duty on (...)

Factual and legal context In upholding on appeal the judgment of the Court of First Instance (Trib. EU, 16 July 2014, Greece v. Commission, Case T-52/12, No. 4-2014, pp. 192-194.), the Court of Justice recalls the principles relating to the basis of the plea alleging distortion of evidence, (...)

Factual and legal context The judgment concerns an action for annulment by Austria against a Commission decision of 25 July 2012 (SA.XXX) declaring aid granted to Bayerische Landesbank (BLDB) by Germany and Austria compatible with the internal market. The aid was granted in the context of the (...)

Factual and legal context The Court of First Instance dismisses the action brought by the Société nationale des chemins de fer française (SNCF) against the Commission’s decision of 9 March 2012 (’Sernam 3 decision’, No 2012/398/EU) and, at the same time, confirms the reasoning followed by the (...)

Following the bankruptcy of TVX Hellas Gold in 2003, which owned the Kassandra mines, located in or near the Skouries forest, the Greek State bought the assets of the bankrupt company before quickly selling the mines to a newly created company called Ellinikos Chrysos. On 23 February 2011, the (...)

With this judgment of principle, the Court (albeit in a chamber composition only) specifically ruled for the second time since 1958 (after the Lucchinijudgment, case C-119/05, EU:C:2007:434, EU:C:2007:434) on the primacy of European State aid law by granting exclusive powers to the European (...)

Reminder of facts and procedure Until 2000, Danske Statsbaner ("DSB") was the incumbent rail transport operator in Denmark. Following the abolition of its historical monopoly in 2000, the Danish Ministry of Transport awarded DSB public service transport contracts covering the periods 2000-2004 (...)

The Court dismisses an appeal brought both by Electrabel and by Dunamenti Erőmű against the judgment of 30 April 2014 of the Court of First Instance (Dunamenti Erőmű v Commission, Case C-104/08). T-179/09) which had dismissed Dunamenti Erőmű’s action against a Commission decision of June 2008 (...)

Reminder of facts and procedure Following a complaint by a private broadcaster, the Commission opened an investigation into the financing of TV2 and declared some of the aid compatible with the internal market, with the exception of an amount qualified as overcompensation (decision of 19 May (...)

In a decision of 22 July 2015, the European Commission concluded that the tax exemption from which Electricité de France ("EDF") benefited in 1997 when certain accounting provisions were reclassified as capital injections constituted illegal State aid and ordered the French authorities to (...)

On 2 July 2015, the Commission adopted new Guidelines for the examination of State aid to fisheries and aquaculture (2015/C 217/01). This revision aims in particular at adapting the existing rules to the Regulation on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products (...)

The judgment of the Court of First Instance of 2 July 2015 marks a new stage in the case of the French Government’s public declarations in favour of France Télécom (France Télécom) (see J. Derenne on the Court’s annulment of the Court’s first judgment of 2 July 2015).). Ruling on referral, the Court (...)

Reminder of facts and procedure In February 2011, the Commission opened a formal investigation into four measures in favour of Sace BT, an Italian public-law body transformed into a public limited company in 2004 active in the field of export credit insurance: initial capital endowment of Sace (...)

It is no doubt useful to provide a brief review of the very specific legislative and treaty framework at the origin of this case. The case concerns an extension agreement concluded in 2005 between the Hungarian authorities and a mining company, MOL, to allow it to extend the initial permit (...)

ECJ, 19 March 2015, OTP Bank, Case C-672/13, ECLI:EU:C:2015:185 The Context A Hungarian State decree of 2001 regulated aid to promote access to housing for certain categories of households and provided that it was exclusively for credit institutions to grant and pay loans, to determine the (...)

Trib. EU, 17 March 2015, Pollmeier Massivholz v Commission, Case T-89/09, ECLI:EU:T:2015:153 The context of the case The applicant Pollmeier is a German company active in the hardwood sawmill sector near the Land of Hesse (Germany). In 2007 it lodged a complaint with the Commission alleging (...)

Trib. EU, 26 Feb. 2015, France v. Commission, Case T-135/12 - France Telecom The dispute brought before the Court of First Instance concerns the pension payment system for France Télécom staff with civil servant status. That system was amended by a law of 26 July 1996, coinciding with the (...)

Trib. EU, 15 Jan. 2015, France v. Commission, Case T-1/12, ECLI:EU:T:2015:17 - Sea France Following financial difficulties encountered by SeaFrance, the latter was admitted to the safeguard procedure in April 2010, and was then the subject of judicial liquidation proceedings. Between 2009 and (...)

A Spanish law of 2001 provides that in the case of the acquisition of a holding by a company taxable in Spain in a foreign company, the goodwill resulting from that holding is deductible in the form of depreciation of the taxable base for corporation tax for which the company is liable. This (...)

Trib. EU, 16 October 2014, Alcoa Trasformazioni v Commission, Case T-177/10 Portovesme v Commission, Case T-291/11. Eurallumina v Commission, Case T-308/11 A decree of February 2004 allowed new undertakings (the subject of Cases T-291/11 Portovesme and T-308/11 Eurallumina) to benefit from a (...)

The judgment delivered by the Court of Justice on 4 September 2014 marks the epilogue of a long dispute which we had already commented on when the Court of First Instance delivered its decision at first instance (J. Derenne, Concurrences n° 4-2012). It should be recalled that, by judgment of 11 (...)

The annotated judgment concerns compensation paid to Greek agricultural producers for adverse weather conditions in the summer of 2007 and autumn 2008. This compensation, paid by an insurance body wholly owned by the Greek State, ELGA, consisted of different components and was partly financed (...)

The Autonomous Community of Valencia invested in the creation of a Ciudad de la Luz (CDL) cinema complex in October 2000. To this end, a public limited company was set up, 75% owned by the Autonomous Community of Valencia through the Sociedad Parque Tematico de Alicante (SPTCV) between 2001 and (...)

The final panel of the conference held in Paris the 13th May 2014 about the reparation of competitive damages was devoted to the civil liability of the infringers. This panel helped to address various sensitive aspects of a question submitted to several provisions of the directive proposition. (...)

The European Commission has adopted new guidelines on state aid for energy and environmental aid following three successive public consultations with stakeholders and Member States since July 2012. Indeed, it will be remembered that there was much discussion on the very definition of the (...)

The Commission’s new so-called Transparency Communication, adopted on 21 May 2014 and published on 27 June, is part of the modernisation of state aid policy and aims at increasing the accountability of state aid policies as well as at better informing citizens about public policies. The purpose (...)

On 21 May 2014, the European Commission adopted a new Communication to regulate and facilitate the granting of state aid for research, development and innovation ("R&D&I") activities. The new Communication is part of the drive to modernise state aid in order to help Member States meet (...)

[ Trib. EU, 30 April 2014, Dunamenti Erőmű c/ Commission, Case T-179/09Trib. EU, 30 April 2014, Tisza Erőmű v Commission, Case T-468/08 On 30 April 2014, the Tribunal delivered two judgments concerning power purchase agreements in Hungary. Although the two cases are factually linked, as they (...)

Factual and legal context ---- In confirming the Commission’s decision, the Court of First Instance recalls the principles relating to the concept of advantage, the standard of reasoning expected of the Commission in the recovery of aid and sets the limits to the invocability of the principle (...)

The Grand Chamber of the Court made an order on 4 April 2014 in response to a question referred for a preliminary ruling in the case of Flughafen Lübeck v Air Berlin. It recalls that if national courts could find that a measure does not constitute aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU (...)

Changes in the legal status of La Poste ---- Let us briefly recall the evolution of the legal status of La Poste. By an Act of 2 July 1990 the former Directorate-General for Posts and Telecommunications was split into two legal persons governed by public law: France Télécom and La Poste. By a (...)

In 1996 and 1997, the Bulgarian State granted loans to Rousse Industry AD, a company active in the shipbuilding industry, whose repayment debt had been the subject of a first rescheduling agreement in 2001 with extended repayment terms from 2006 until 2015. As the company failed to meet the (...)

Background Let us briefly review the facts of the case. In order to facilitate and accelerate the switchover to digital terrestrial television, Italy granted a public subsidy in 2004 and 2005 to each user of the broadcasting service who bought or rented a decoder for the free-to-air reception (...)

That preliminary ruling, given on a reference from the Conseil d’État of France, concerns the sole condition of State intervention or the use of State resources for a State measure to be classified as State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU. The solution was awaited so long as it (...)

On 18 December 2013, the European Commission adopted a revised de minimis aid regulation following three public consultations. The new regulation follows the three axes that constitute the underlying objectives of modernising state aid policy: simplification, legal certainty, prevention of (...)

A Commission decision of 23 February 2011 had ordered Italy to recover aid linked to the supply of electricity at preferential tariffs to three companies established in Sardinia. Italy is condemned here for not recovering this aid within the time limit. The Court reiterates its traditional (...)

The Lufthansa’ judgment, as we shall soon call it, concerns one of the many Ryanair’ disputes that are gradually forming the law on State aid in the field of aviation. This judgment is undoubtedly destined to be as well known and cited as the SFEI or Almark preliminary rulings in their respective (...)

Communication from the Commission on State aid to cinematographic and other audiovisual works, OJEU C/332 of 15 November 2013, p. 1. The European Commission adopted new guidelines on State aid to cinematographic and other audiovisual works on 15 November 2013. This Communication, which does (...)

As part of the modernisation of state aid control, several draft regulations or guidelines were submitted this summer for public consultation with a view to their adoption in the coming months. Aviation The Commission has launched a consultation between 3 July 2013 and 25 September 2013 on EU (...)

This case follows the phasing out of advertising on French public service television channels and its compensation through various measures in favour of France Télévisions. Legal Context ---- Law No 2009-258 on audiovisual communication and the new public service television (JORF of 7 March (...)

GCEU, 16.09.2013, Iliad v. Commission, Case T-325/10 GCEU, 16.09.2013, Colt Télécommunications France v. Commission, Case T-79/10 These three judgments have not been joined by the Tribunal but, given their very great similarity (and complexity), they will be examined together, retaining only (...)

Factual and legal background - Complaint and Commission decision An Italian decree of 1945 requires the Italian Post Office (Poste Italiane SpA, Banco Posta for financial services) to transfer the funds collected from its customers to a current account of the Caisse des dépôts et de prêts (of (...)

As part of the State aid modernisation programme, the Council of the Union has amended Regulation 994/98 to introduce new categories of aid which may be exempted under a Commission exemption regulation. To this end, the Council adds new categories of aid falling within the Commission’s (...)

On 22 July 2013, the Council of the Union adopted a procedural regulation amending Regulation No 659/1999. It aims to make the procedure for handling and examining complaints more efficient, gives the Commission more extensive powers of investigation and provides a framework for cooperation (...)

The Court’s judgment in this case brings to an end a long debate which had been going on for several years between the French authorities and the Commission at European level and, in France, between the Court of Auditors and the Council of State at national level, concerning the classification (...)

CJEU, 21 March 2013, Commission v. Italy, Case C-613/11 This is a classic case of failure to recover illegal and incompatible aid within the time limit laid down in a Commission Decision (2008/92/EC of 10 July 2007 on an aid scheme for the shipping sector in Sardinia). Only a few remarks are (...)

The judgment of the Court of First Instance of 17 May 2011, which partially annulled the Commission’s decision of 23 October 2007 ordering the Buczek Group, which is active in the steel production sector, to repay the unlawful aid allegedly granted to it by Poland (Trib. EU, Judgment of 17 May (...)

Trib. EU, 20 March 2013, Rousse Industry v Commission, Case T-489/11 The present case concerns the support granted by the Bulgarian State to Rousse Industry AD, a company active in the shipbuilding industry, in the form of loans in the years 1996 and 1997, the repayment debt of which was the (...)

CJEU, 19 March 2013, Bouygues and Bouygues Télécom v. European Commission, and Commission v. French Republic, Joined Cases C-399/10P and C-401/10P. The effectiveness of some of the Court’s judgments reflects the irrefutable nature of certain rules. This judgment of the Court is proof of this. In (...)

Trib. EU, 20 March 2013, Jørgen Andersen v Commission, Case T-92/11 Danske Statsbaner ("DSB") is the incumbent rail transport operator in Denmark. Following the abolition of its historical monopoly in 2000, the Danish Ministry of Transport awarded DSB public service transport contracts covering (...)

With a first proposal, the Commission wishes to extend the scope of Council Regulation (EC) No 994/98 of 7 May 1998 on the application of Articles 92 and 93 of the Treaty establishing the European Community to certain categories of horizontal State aid and of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the (...)

CJEU, 24 January 2013, Commission v. Spain, Case C-529/09 This case concerns a Commission decision of 1998 (1999/509) in the Magefesa case, the same one in which the Court delivered a judgment on 11 December 2012 finding that a judgment of the Court had not been complied with, this time in (...)

In July 2008, Aiscat complained that the concession granted by the Italian authorities to the company Concessioni autostradali Venete (CAV SpA) for the management, ordinary and extraordinary maintenance, of the section of a motorway known as ’Passante di Mestre’ (the ’Passante’), which users can (...)

Cass. com, February 26, 2013, No. 11-22029. Cass. com, April 23, 2013, No. 12-19184. CA administrative de Bordeaux, February 5, 2013, n° 12BX00231 CE, 28 December 2012, SAS SIA Industrie, n° 335552 The Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal, the Council of State and the Court of Cassation (...)

CJEU, 11 December 2012, Commission v. Spain, Case C-610/10 This case unfortunately illustrates two fundamental evils from which the effective application of the state aid rules suffers, and in particular the issue of the recovery of illegal and incompatible aid: on the one hand, the bad faith, (...)

Trib. UE, 7 November 2012, Coordination bruxelloise d’institutions sociales et de santé (CBI) v Commission, aff.T-137/10 The Brussels public hospital affair was already destined to become a real textbook case. After the upheavals due to questions of admissibility following the withdrawal of a (...)

Trib. EU, 27 September 2012, Italy v. Commission, Case T-257/10 Finally, the General Court dismisses two actions for annulment (one brought by Italy and the other brought by Wam Industriale SpA) against a Commission decision of 24 March 2010 ordering the recovery of unlawful and incompatible (...)

Trib. UE, 20 September 2012, France v. Commission, aff.T-154/10 The General Court dismisses an action for annulment brought by France against the Commission’s decision of 26 January 2010 classifying as State aid the unlimited guarantee, albeit implicit, given by the French State to La Poste (...)

General Court, 13.09.12, Italian Republic v. Commission, Case T-379/09 At the beginning of the 2000s, the Italian Republic introduced a partial exemption from excise duty for gas oil used for heating greenhouses. Having received information on this scheme, the Commission, after requesting (...)

This consultation was launched by the European Commission on 13 July 2012 and aims primarily to gather the views of interested parties on two issues: the handling of complaints and the collection of market information. The Commission’s objective is to set priorities in the handling of complaints (...)

EC, 13.07.12, req. no. 347073 In the context of an action for annulment brought against a decree, the Council of State is seised of a plea relating to the failure to notify a subsidy provided for by the contested text. Before examining the existence of the alleged aid and, therefore, the (...)

General Court, 10.07.12, Télévision française 1, Métropole télévision, Canal + v. Commission, case T-520/09 As part of a reform of public broadcasting, the French State has decided to phase out advertising on public service television channels. In order to compensate for the loss resulting from this (...)

CJEU, 28.06.12, Commission v. Hellenic Republic, Case C-485/10 A judgment which is, after all, classic and relatively expeditious inasmuch as the Court accepts all the arguments put forward by the Commission in support of its action for failure to fulfil obligations brought by Greece. In the (...)

Communication from the Commission - Guidelines on certain State aid measures in the context of the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme post-2012, OJ C158, 5 June 2012, p. 4. Directive 2003/87/EC, amended in 2009, established a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading (...)

Commission Regulation (EU) No 360/2012 of 25 April 2012 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 TFEU to de minimis aid granted to undertakings providing services of general economic interest, OJ L114, 26 April 2012, p. 8. As part of the overall amendment of the rules applicable to services (...)

CJEU, 29 March 2012, Commission v. Italy, case C-243/10 The Court condemns Italy for failing to take all the measures necessary, within the prescribed period, to recover from the beneficiaries the aid granted under the aid scheme declared unlawful and incompatible with the internal market by (...)

CJEU, 29 March 2012, 3M Italia, box C-417/10 A reference for a preliminary ruling by the Italian Court of Cassation has led the Court to hear disputes relating to the taxation of dividends which have arisen between undertakings and the tax authorities in connection with a national rule under (...)

GCEU, 28 March 2012, Ryanair v. Commission, Case T-123/09 The Irish company Ryanair has brought an action for annulment against two decisions of the European Commission concerning the Italian company Alitalia, 49.9% owned by the Italian State. The first decision which is the subject of the (...)

GCEU, 28 February 2012, Land Burgenland and Austria v. Commission, joined cases T-268/08 and T-281/08 GCEU, 28 February 2012, Grazer Wechselseitige Versicherung v. Commission, Case T-282/08 In a decision of 30 April 2008, the Commission had declared incompatible aid granted in connection with (...)

Commission Decision 2012/21/EU of 20 December 2011 on the application of Article 106(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to State aid in the form of public service compensation granted to certain undertakings entrusted with the operation of services of general economic (...)

CJEU, 13 October 2011, Commission v. Italy, case C-454/09 The Commission had adopted a negative decision against Italy (Commission Decision 2008/697/EC of 16 April 2008 on State aid C 13/07 (ex NN 15/06) implemented by Italy for New Interline). Rescue aid in the form of a guarantee for a bank (...)

CJEU, 8 December 2011, France Télécom v Commission, Case C-81/10 P By judgment of 30 November 2009, the Court of First Instance dismissed an action for annulment brought by France Télécom and France against the Commission’s decision of 2 August 2004 concerning the business tax derogation scheme (...)

Trib. EU, 13 December 2011, Konsum Nord v Commission, Case T-244/08 It is sometimes surprising how State aid rules are applied in concrete situations to solve problems of an almost daily nature. This is at least illustrated by the case concerning the sale of land by the municipality of Åre (...)

This judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal, in civil matters, is an illustration of the perfect mastery of the judges in question of fundamental principles, but sometimes poorly applied at national level, of "constitutional" European law and State aid. The case concerned the so-called ’44 (...)

GCEU 13 February 2012, Budapesti Erőmű v. Commission, joined cases T-80/06 and T-182/09 In that judgment the Court of First Instance dismissed the action brought by the Hungarian subsidiary of Electricité de France, Budapesti Erőmű Zrt, seeking the annulment of a Commission decision of 4 June 2008 (...)

For several years, the recovery of unlawful aid and aid that is incompatible with the internal market has been a priority of the European Commission’s State aid policy (the European Commission has created a dedicated recovery unit, commissioned a study on the application of State aid law by (...)

Eur. Comm., dec. C(2011) 9316 final, 9 January 2012, on the State Aid implemented by Hungary in favour of Malév Hungarian Airlines, case SA.30584 During the numerous attempts by the Hungarian State to privatise the airline Malév, which have repeatedly failed, eight measures to support the (...)

CJEU, 8 December 2011, Residex Capital IV, box C-275/10 The question referred for a preliminary ruling by the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden, the Netherlands Court of Cassation, is an opportunity for the Court to recall the fundamental principles of the role of the court in the recovery of unlawful (...)

GCEU, 20 September 2011, Regione autonoma della Sardegna v. Commission, joined cases T-394/08, T-408/08, T-453/08 and T-454/08 Background to the case ---- In 1998, the Regione autonoma della Sardegna ("Region of Sardinia") introduced a series of investment aid measures for companies in the (...)

Draft Commission Communication on the application of EU State aid rules to compensation for the provision of services of general economic interest Draft EU framework for State aid in the form of public service compensation Draft Commission Regulation on the application of Articles 107 and 108 (...)

General Court, 11.09.12, Corsica Ferries France SAS v. Commission, Case T-565/08 This judgment marks a new stage in the "Corsica Ferries" saga, a rather difficult setback for the European Commission since the Court of First Instance found that the contested decision should be annulled. It is (...)

CJEU, 8 September 2011, Paint Graphos, joined cases C-78/08 to C-80/08 Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Italian Court of Cassation was made to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling in three joined cases on the interpretation of the concept of aid in the context of a dispute (...)

Commission decision declaring aid compatible annulled by the Court of First Instance The Dutch authorities had notified to the Commission an emission trading scheme for nitrogen oxides (hereinafter ’the measure’). The scheme applied only to large industrial installations with a capacity exceeding (...)

CJEU, 28 July 2011, Mediaset v Commission, Case C-403/10 P The judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case T-177/07 has already been commented upon (see Concurrences No. 3-2010, pp. 142-144) and a brief review of the facts of the case will suffice. In order to speed up the switchover to (...)

EC, 26 July 2011, Air France e.a., n° 329818 (See also, infra, "Public Sector" column, obs. J.-Ph. Kovar) This decision is a further step in the dispute concerning airport charges at Marseille airport between Air France and the Marseille-Provence Chamber of Commerce and Industry, holder of the (...)

CJEU, 21 July 2011, Freistaat Sachsen and Land Sachsen-Anhalt v Commission, Case C-459/10 P Appeal brought on 8 July 2010 by Freistaat Sachsen and the Land of Sachsen-Anhalt against the judgment of the General Court of 8 July 2010 (T-396/08, see Case T-396/08, see Case T-396/08). Concurrences (...)

Commissioner, Dec. C(2011) 4933, 13 July 2011, Air Transport - Exemption from air passenger tax - Netherlands (Schiphol Airport and Air France-KLM), case SA.25254 Following the lodging of a complaint by Ryanair in 2008 against alleged illegal aid of EUR 400 million per year granted to Schiphol (...)

Eur. comm. dec. C(2010) 2538 final, 26 May 2010, Tax settlement in favour of Umicore (ex "Union Minière") - Belgium, case C 76/2003 (ex NN 69/2003) Umicore has been the subject of an investigation by the tax authorities in several Member States. Following this investigation, the Belgian Special (...)

Trib. EU, 17 May 2011, Buczek Automotive v Commission, Case T-1/08 This case takes place in the context of the steel restructuring programme initiated by the Polish authorities in the early 2000s and approved in 2003 by Protocol No 8 to the Act concerning the conditions of accession of Poland (...)

CJEU, 5 May 2011, Commission v. Italy, Case C-305/09 This case illustrates the extent of Member States’ obligations to recover illegal and incompatible aid. In 2004 the Commission adopted a decision finding an aid scheme introduced by Italy (various tax incentives for companies participating (...)

Eur. comm. dec. C(2011) 1378 final, 8 March 2011, state guarantee, put in place to cover the exchange rate risk for aeronautic suppliers (Aero 2008) - France, case C 18/2010 The Commission has initiated ex officio proceedings in respect of a guarantee implemented by France in favour of the (...)

EC, 16 February 2011, Federation of Commerce and Distribution Enterprises, No. 301333 The French association for the valorisation of the products and professional sectors of horticulture and landscape has been recognised by the competent public authorities as a national interprofession for the (...)

Communication from the Commission, Temporary Union framework for State aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic crisis, OJ C. 6, 11 January 2011, p. 5. Against the background of the current financial and economic crisis, the Commission adopted at the end (...)

CJEU, 22 December 2010, Commission v. Slovakia, case C-507/08 Un recours en manquement a été introduit par la Commission à l’encontre de la République slovaque sur le fondement de l’article 260 TFUE pour avoir manqué aux obligations qui lui incombent en vertu de la décision 2007/254/CE (Comm. déc., 7 (...)

CJEU, 22 December 2010, Commission v. Italy, Case C-304/09 The present case is a reminder of the prohibition, in reality absolute, for a court to suspend and delay the recovery of unlawful and incompatible aid for any reason whatsoever, unless the strict conditions of European case law for the (...)

CJEU, 22 December 2010, Commission v. Slovakia, Case C-507/08 An action for failure to fulfil obligations was brought by the Commission against the Slovak Republic on the basis of Article 260 TFEU for failure to fulfil its obligations under Decision 2007/254/EC (Commission Dec. 2007/254/EC), 7 (...)

GCEU, 16 December 2010, The Netherlands and NOS v. Commission, joined cases T-231/06 and T-237/06 On 16 December 2010, the General Court dismissed two actions for annulment (brought by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS)) against Commission Decision (...)

CJEU, 16 December 2010, Seydaland, case C-239/09 The relevance of this case is the question raised of the assessment of the market value of a sale of public land and thus the assessment by the Court of Justice of the Commission’s 1997 communication on this point (Commission communication of 10 (...)

Communication from the Commission on the application of State aid rules to State aid to banks in the context of the financial crisis as from 1 January 2011, OJEU No C 329, 7 December 2010, p.7. In order to prepare the European Union for a gradual return to normal market functioning, the (...)

CJEU, 2 September 2010, Commission v Deutsche Post, C-399/08 P The liberalisation of the postal sector reaches its final phase in January 2011 after more than 25 years of very slow progress (see, in particular, the first "postal cases" in the Commission’s competition reports in 1986, the Postal (...)

In three judgments handed down on September 2, 2010, the Versailles Court of Appeal has marked a new milestone in a case that is better known as "Boiron". This case has undergone various developments, both before the national judge and the European judge (judgment of 7 September 2006, (...)

Ce rapport présente de façon synthétique les tendances générales identifiées dans le cade de la mise à jour de 2009 de l’étude de la Commission de 2006 sur l’application des règles relatives aux aides d’Etat au niveau national et du State Aid Thesaurus publiés pour e-Competitions sur le site de la revue (...)

On 3 June 2010, the Labour Court of Brussels ("the Court") delivered a judgment reversing a judgment of 8 November 2002 of the Labour Court of Brussels in a case concerning the recovery of aid granted under the Maribel bis and ter schemes. In 1999 the Court of Justice dismissed an action by (...)

European Commission, Press release IP/10/1053 of 17 August 2010, The Netherlands - Restructuring aid to AEGON, Case N 372/2009, Pursuant to Article 107(3)(c) TFEU and its Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection (OJEU No C 82 of 1 April 2008, p. 1, hereinafter the ’Guidelines’; see (...)

Eur. Comm., dec. C(2010) 3218, 26 May 2010, Cargo activities of SNCB - Belgium, N 726/2009 The full non-confidential text of the May 2010 decision (adopted without opening the formal investigation procedure) was recently published on DG Competition’s website and it is therefore appropriate to (...)

CJEU, 11 March 2010, Centre d’exportation du livre français (CELF), Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication v. Société internationale de diffusion et d’édition (SIDE), Case C-1/09. This is the CELF II case. A judgment which was no doubt unnecessary in view of the obvious answers but not (...)

General Court, 3 March 2010, Bundesverband deutscher Banken v. Commission, Case T-163/05, This case concerns one of the ’Landesbanks’, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (the Landesbank), which has a status equivalent to that of German banks that benefited from individual measures in the (...)

CFI, 30 November 2009, France and France Télécom v Commission, cases T-427/04 and T-17/05 This judgment of the Tribunal puts an end (provisionally? At the time of writing, the time-limit for appeal has not yet expired) to the long dispute between, on the one hand, the Commission and, on the (...)

CFI, 25 November 2009, Germany v Commission, Case T-376/07 This case concerns the contestation of a Commission decision ordering Germany to provide information on two state aid schemes covered by the then applicable exemption regulation on aid to SMEs (Regulation No 70/2001, since replaced by (...)

Eur. Comm, Dec. 2010/262/EC, 28 October 2009 on the State aid implemented by the United Kingdom for Northern Rock, case C 14/08, OJ L112, 5 May 2010, p. 38. This is a case decided in October 2009, but the publication of the text of the decision in the Official Journal recently justifies a more (...)

CFI, 9 September 2009, Diputación Foral de Álava and Gobierno Vasco and Others v Commission, Joined Cases T-230/01 to T-232/01 and T-267/01 to T 269/01. The Historical Territories of Álava, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa (hereinafter the ’Basque Territories’) have autonomous competence to organise the tax (...)

CFI, 8 September 2009, ACEAElectrabel v. Commission, Case T 303/05 This case concerns aid paid in the context of the construction of a new district heating network in the region of Rome (Torrino-Mezzocammino) by ACEA (a former municipal undertaking of Rome), in joint venture with Electrabel (...)

This third edition of Conor Quigley’s highly acclaimed book offers the most comprehensive and detailed examination of European State Aid law. The book is designed to provide lawyers, regulators, public officials and students with a definitive statement of the law and practice of State Aid. At (...)

Eur. com. 2010/137/EC of 28 August 2009, Austria Austrian Airlines - Restructuring plan, Case C 6/2009 (ex. N 663/2008), OJEU No L. 59 of 9 March 2010, p. 1. The case is interesting because it mixes merger law and State aid law on certain points, in the particular context of the takeover of (...)

Commission Communication "The return to viability and the assessment of restructuring measures in the financial sector in the current crisis under the State aid rules", OJ C195, 19 August 2009, p.9. This latest Communication from the European Commission on state aid to financial institutions (...)

DG Competition’s review of guarantee and recapitalisation schemes in the financial sector in the current crisis, 7 August 2009 The document published by DG Competition on 7 August undoubtedly falls within the category of "unidentified Community documents" which the Commission regularly publish (...)

EC. Comm, 2 July 2009, Extension of the Community Guidelines on State Aid for Rescuing and Restructuring Firms in Difficulty. The 2004 Community Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty expired on 9 October 2009. Recognising that the economic crisis has (...)

CFI, 1 July 2009, Maas and Groenewegen (KG Holding) v Commission, Case T-81/07 to T-83/07. In this judgment, the facts of which are highly complex, the Court of First Instance clarifies certain aspects relating to the rules applicable to State aid granted to undertakings declared bankrupt. (...)

EC. Communication providing guidance on State aid to ship management companies, OJ C132, 11 June 2009, p. 6. Following on from its guidelines of January 2004 (Community guidelines on State aid to maritime transport, OJEU of 17 January 2004, C 13, p. 3), the Commission provides further details (...)

CFI, 9 June 2009, NDSHT Nya Destination Stockholm Hotell & Teaterpaket AB v Commission, Case T-152/06 This judgment is the subject of a commentary in the "Procedure" section of this issue.. However, we would like to make a few comments in light of what we believe is a questionable approach (...)

EC Commission, Press release IP/09/711 of 7 May 2009, State aid: Commission approves recapitalisation of Commerzbank, Case N 244/2009, Commission press release IP/09/711 of 7 May 2009, State aid: Commission approves recapitalisation of Commerzbank, Case N 244/2009 EC Commission, Press release (...)

ECJ, 30 April 2009, Commission v. Italy and Wam, Case C-494/06 P. An Italian company, Wam SpA, had received two aid measures in the form of soft loans for the implementation of market penetration programmes in several Far Eastern countries. I. Commission Decision of 19 May 2004 Following a (...)

EC. Comm, 8 April 2009, France - Fiscal measures in favour of the port sector, case C 13/2009 (ex N 614/08), opening of the in-depth procedure, OJ C122, 30 May 2009, p. 16. The Commission has initiated the formal investigation procedure concerning the tax measures in favour of the port sector (...)

ECJ, 2 April 2009, Lodato Gennaro & C. SpA v. INPS, case C-415/07 The Court specifies the calculation method applicable to State aid for job creation, as detailed in the guidelines on aid to employment and the guidelines on national regional aid, when it comes to identifying the number of (...)

ECJ, 2.4.09, Bouygues and Bouygues Télécom v. Commission, Case C-431/07 P, "UMTS licences". In this case, the Court confirmed the judgment delivered by the Court of First Instance on July 4, 2007 which dismissed an action for annulment brought by Bouygues and Bouygues Télécom against a decision of (...)

CFI, 11 March 2009, TF1 v Commission, Case T-354/05. This case is interesting not only because of the number of legal issues raised by the parties before the Tribunal, but also because of the more political issues underlying it. The dispute at the origin of this judgment is symbolic of the (...)

CFI, 10.3.09, Aker Warnow Werft and Kvaerner v. Commission, Case T-68/05 Support for the Community’s maritime sector and in particular for its shipyards continues to be a priority for the Commission, as illustrated by the prolongation of the Framework on State aid to shipbuilding until 2011 or (...)

ECJ, 5.3.09, Unión de Televisiones Comerciales Asociadas (UTECA) v. Administración General del Estado, case C-222/07 Although classified in the category "freedom to provide services" on the Court’s website, the UTECA judgment is nonetheless of some interest from the point of view of State aid law (...)

EC Commission, 25 February 2009, Notice on the application of State aid rules by national courts, OJEU C.85, 9 April 2009, p. 1. At a time of economic and financial crisis when the examination of state aid measures is an important part of the European Commission’s resources, the European (...)

CA Koblenz, 4th civil court, 25 February 2009, Lufthansa AG v. Flughafen Frankfurt Hahn GmbH, aff. 4 U 759/07, OLG Koblenz 4. Zivilsenat The German national courts are particularly cautious (to put it mildly) when it comes to analysing the standing of competitors of a beneficiary of aid (...)

EC Comm, 25.2.09, Communication amending of the Temporary framework for State aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic crisis, consolidated version published in OJ C83 , 07.04.2009 After approving, on the basis of the "Temporary Framework", various (...)

EC Commission, 25 February 2009, Communication on the treatment of impaired assets in the Community banking sector, OJEU No C.72 of 26 March 2009, p. 1. First comment: Reminder of the context and objectives of the new Communication ___________________________________________________________ (...)

CFI, 10 February 2009, Deutsche Post AG and DHL International v Commission, Case T-388/03 In that judgment, the Court of First Instance had to rule on two important aspects of the State aid control procedure, namely (i) the conditions under which the Commission is obliged to initiate the (...)

In the present circumstances, it seemed useful to provide the reader with a comprehensive but descriptive compilation of all decisions adopted by the Commission since January 2008 in the context of the financial crisis. A brief description of the evolution of the Commission’s attitude precedes (...)

CE, 19 December 2008, Centre d’Exportation du Livre Français (CELF) and Minister of Culture and Communication, No. 274923 and 274967 A new and predictable stage is added to the many episodes of CELF case law, which now falls within the scope of the "test case". CELF ruling of 2008 It will be (...)

ECJ, 18 December 2008, Wienstrom GmbH v Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Arbeit, Case C-384/07. Reference for a preliminary ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ, 12 February 2008, Case C-199/06 - CELF).not yet published in the ECR - see new CELF case (...)

CFI, 17 December 2008, Ryanair Ltd v Commission, Case T-196/04 1. Low cost airlines The name of the low-cost airline Ryanair has now become emblematic in the application of State aid law (and seems to become emblematic in the field of mergers). Faced with the commercial success of this (...)

EC Comm, 10 December 2008, Commission authorises PLN 24 million ( 6.2 million) aid to Polish foundry Odlewnia Żeliwa "Śrem" , box C52/2006 The Commission had initiated the formal investigation procedure under Article 88(2) EC on restructuring aid granted to Srem, a Polish metal company. Poland (...)

EC Comm, 5 December 2008, Communication - Recapitalisation of financial institutions in the current financial crisis: limitation of the aid to the minimum necessary and safeguards against undue distortions of competition, OJ C10, 05.01.09, p. 2. The financial crisis and the way it is being (...)

EC Comm, 3.12.08, Restructuring aid in favour of Fortis Bank and Fortis Bank Luxemburg, case NN42/2008 - NN46/2008 - NN53/A/2008 The publication of the non-confidential version of the Fortis decision on DG COMP’s website provides further details of the case, which is already well known to (...)

CFI, 28 November 2008, Hotel Cipriani and Others v Commission, Joined Cases T-254/00, T-270/00 and T-277/00 In addition to a reminder of the admissibility criteria of an appeal for the specific addressees of a general decision (which are discussed in the "Procedures" column of this issue), the (...)

EC, Ass. 24 October 2008, Comité national des interprofessions des vins à appellations d’origine e.a., No. 282920. This judgment of the Conseil d’État concerns an action for misuse of powers brought by the Comité national des interprofessions des vins à appellations d’origine and other (...)

EC Comm, 21.10.2008, on a State aid scheme implemented by Italy to remunerate Poste Italiane for distributing postal savings certificates, case C 49/06 (ex NN 65/06), no aid; OJ L189, 21 July 2009, p. 3. In this case, a first decision had been issued concerning the savings books distributed by (...)

EC Comm, 13 October 2008, Communication on The application of State aid rules to measures taken in relation to financial institutions in the context of the current global financial crisis, (2008/C 270/02) By adopting these guidelines, the Commission has honoured, in a very short period of (...)

CFI, 24 September 2008, Kahla/Thüringen Porzellan GmbH v. Commission, Case T-20/03 Adopting a very conventional approach, the Court of First Instance agreed with the Commission on the application of the 1999 rescue and restructuring guidelines (Community guidelines on State aid for rescuing and (...)

Cass. com, September 23, 2008, Ecomax Corporation, No. 06-20.945 Cass. com, 23 September 2008, Société immobilière et de services Boétie, No. 06-20.947 On 23 September 2008, the Court of Cassation overturned two rulings of the Basse-Terre Court of Appeal, which on 18 June 2008 had rejected the (...)

ECJ, 11 September 2008, Unión General de Trabajadores de La Rioja (UGT-Rioja) and Others v Juntas Generales del Territorio Histórico de Vizcaya, and Others, Case C-428/06 to C-434/06. In this judgment, the Court returned to the widely debated question of whether or not measures taken by regional (...)

TABLE OF CONTENTS OPENING REMARKS Mr Jean-Marc SAUVÉ, Vice-President of the Conseil d’Etat Mr Mario MONTI, Former European Commissioner for Competition, President of the Bocconi University of Milan IS STATE AID CONTROL POLICY A COMPETITION POLICY? Introduction: Mrs Marie-Dominique (...)

ECJ, 17 July 2008, Athinaïki Techniki AE v Commission, Case C-521/06 P. This judgment of the Court of Justice deserves attention because it differs so much from the position adopted by the Court of First Instance in opening up the admissibility of the actions of complainants whose complaints (...)

ECJ, 15 April 2008, Nuova Agricast Srl v. Ministero delle Attività Produttive, case C-390/06 The judgment follows a preliminary ruling on the validity of a Commission decision not to raise objections to a new aid scheme for investment in the less-favoured regions of Italy. This is the second (...)

EFTA Court, 21 February 2008, Private Barnehagers Landsforbund v. EFTA Surveillance Authority, Case E-5/07 This case decided by the EFTA Court is noteworthy for its treatment, in the context of an aid case, of the concept of economic activity, which must characterise the undertaking within the (...)

EC Comm, 27 February 2008, Restructuring aid to IKB, Germany, case C 10/2008, opening of an in-depth investigation EC Comm, 27 Februray 2008, Restructuring Aid to Sachsen LB, Germany, case C 9/2008, opening of an in-depth investigation EC Comm, 5 December 2007, Restructuring aid to Northern (...)

Report from the Commission - State Aid Scoreboard - Autumn 2007 Update On 13 December 2007, the Commission published its autumn 2007 update of the "State Aid Scoreboard" (COM(2007) 791 final - available on DG Competition’s website). This 2007 edition analyses the State aid situation in the (...)

Notice from the Commission - Towards an effective implementation of Commission decisions ordering Member States to recover unlawful and incompatible State aid, OJEU C 272, 15 November 2007, p. 4-17. The European Commission adopted on 25 October 2007 a Notice on the implementation of "Decisions (...)

ECJ, 18 October 2007, Commission v. France, case C-441/06 This judgment should be taken into account for the autonomous application of Article 10 EC by the Court. On 2 August 2004, the Commission took a decision in which it ordered France to recover State aid granted to France Télécom (business (...)

CFI, 20 September 2007, Fachvereinigung Mineralfaserindustrie eV Deutsche Gruppe der Eurima - European Insulation Manufacturers Association v. Commission, Case T-375/03 A measure to promote the use of insulation materials produced from renewable raw materials has been notified to the (...)

ECJ, 20 September 2007, Commission v. Kingdom of Spain, case C-177/06 Three Basque provinces have adopted tax measures to encourage business creation (exemption from corporate tax for ten consecutive tax years). The Commission has adopted three decisions in which it classifies these measures (...)

CFI, 12 September 2007, Olympiaki Aeroporia Ypiresies AE v Commission, Case T-68/03 The Court of First Instance partially annulled the Commission’s decision of 2002 on certain new aid granted by the Greek authorities to OA (at that time Olympic Airways) but confirmed the decision in so far as (...)

CFI, 12 September 2007, MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH v Commission, Case T-196/02 This judgment seems to confirm the possibility of an order by the Commission for joint and several repayment of aid, provided that the Commission establishes a real transfer of State resources to the undertaking which (...)

CFI, 12 September 2007, Koninklijke Friesland Foods NV v Commission, Case T-348/03 This is one of the few aid cases in which the principle of legitimate expectations has been successfully invoked. The Dutch Act of 13 December 1996 amending the Corporation Tax Act provides for a special scheme (...)

CFI, 19 July 2007, Denys Bouychou v. Commission, Case T-344/04. CFI, 19 July 2007, FG Marine v Commission, Case T-360/04. Remedies based on non-contractual competition liability are very rare. The Schneider Electriccase has recently been decided (Case T-351/03) and judgment is awaited in the (...)

German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof), 5 July 2007, Case No. IX ZR 221/05 BVT, a State-controlled company, granted loans to SKL. Shortly after SKL went bankrupt, the Commission adopted a decision ordering the repayment of the aid paid by Germany through BVT to SKL. In German bankruptcy (...)

EC Commission, 10 May 2007, Financial contribution to the voluntary early retirement scheme of OTE - Greece, Case C 2/2006 By this decision, the Commission declares compatible with the common market the contribution of the Greek State to the financing of the early retirement scheme introduced (...)

EC Comm, 4 April 2007, Shipbuilding guarantee scheme - Finland, case E 7/2005 In its decision of 4 April 2007, the Commission has to examine two aid schemes under which Finnvera, a Finnish State-owned financing company, grants guarantees for the financing of the purchase or repair of a vessel. (...)

EC Commission, Regulation No 1998/2006 of 15 December 2006 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty to de minimis aid, OJ L. 379, 28 December 2006, p. 5. The Commission is continuing its extensive legislative work unveiled in its State Aid Action Plan launched in June 2005. This (...)

ECJ, 14 December 2006, Commission v. Kingdom of Spain, Cases C-485/03 to C-490/03 This judgment of the Court follows actions for failure to fulfil obligations brought by the Commission against Spain under Article 88(2) EC for failure to implement a series of decisions declaring aid schemes (...)

ECJ, 6 September 2006, Portugal v. Commission, Case C-88/03 That judgment is the first in which the Court answers the question whether a measure which provides for a more favourable rate of tax for a certain geographical area of a Member State than that in force at national level must be (...)

CFI, 6 September 2006, Italian Republic and Wam SpA v Commission, cases T-304/04 and T-316/04. This surprising judgment of the Court of First Instance throws doubt on well-established case law on the classification of aid because of the effects of a measure reinforcing (or likely to reinforce) (...)

ECJ, 1 June 2006, Commission v. Italy, Case C-207/05. Improving the recovery by Member States of illegal and incompatible aid is one of the Commission’s objectives in the context of state aid reform. This is one of the two topics covered by the study recently published by the Commission on its (...)

EC Comm, Euromoteurs, Case C-1/2005, Press release IP/06/439, 27 April 2006 The relevance of this case is its link with the Deggendorf jurisprudence according to which the Commission may ’pressurise’ a Member State to make an examination of the compatibility of a given aid conditional on the (...)

EC Commission, Press release IP/06/477 of 7 April 2006 Study published on DG Competition website On 7 April 2006, the European Commission published on its website a study that it commissioned from a consortium of state aid lawyers on two issues: the role of national courts in protecting (...)

The Court of First Instance of the EC confirms the absence of evidence of the necessity of rescue and restructuring aid on the basis of the information available to the Commission at the time of the adoption of its decision. CFI, 6 April 2006, Schmitz-Gotha Fahrzeugwerke v. Commission, Case (...)

CFI, 5 April 2006, Deutsche Bahn v Commission, Case T-351/02, not yet published in the ECR. Deutsche Bahn (DB) lodged a complaint with the Commission in July 2002 against the tax exemption for aircraft fuel (kerosene) under German law. According to the DB, such an exemption constituted state (...)

The Court of Justice of the EC considers that a remuneration received by the Italian tax assistance centres constitutes State aid ECJ, 30 March 2006, Servizi Ausiliari Dottori Commercialisti, Case C-451/03 This preliminary ruling concerns both Articles 43 EC and 49 EC and the rules on State (...)

CE, 29 March 2006, Centre d’exportation du livre français (CELF), No 274923 The Centre d’exportation du livre français (CELF) received aid each year from 1980 to 2002 to reduce the cost of processing small orders from abroad for books written in French. The Société Internationale de Diffusion et (...)

The proceedings of this colloquium are organised in two parts. In the first stage, the two main axes of the reform are studied: In substantive terms, the aim of the Community reform is to introduce a more economic analysis of aid in this area too. Following the presentation made by Ms Rabassa (...)

The Court of First Instance of the EC decides that the Commission must identify precisely the beneficiaries of a disputed aid measure in its decisions to initiate the formal investigation procedure and carry out a more detailed economic analysis of the aid in question. CFI, 22 February 2006, (...)

The Court of First Instance of the European Communities refuses to consider that a tax measure confers a selective advantage on the ground that the amount of the exemption is proportionate to the costs incurred by the environmental measures to be implemented in order to benefit from it. CFI, (...)

CAA Paris, January 23, 2006, Groupe Salmon Arc en Ciel, n° 04PA01092 Principles of Member State responsibility The judgment of the Administrative Court of Appeal of Paris (CAA de Paris) is delivered in a case in which it is recognised for the second time (at least in France; see below) that the (...)

EC Comm, C(2005) 5412, 21 December 2005, Banque Postale, box N 531/2005 On 21 December 2005, the European Commission decided that the transfer of the banking and financial activities of La Poste (France) to its subsidiary, La Banque Postale, did not contain elements of State aid (see note N. (...)

CFI, 14 December 2005, Regione autonoma della Sardegna v Commission, Case T-200/04. In 2000 the Regional Council of Sardinia adopted aid measures to compensate livestock farmers for the losses suffered as a result of bluetongue. The planned measures included aid to undertakings and (...)

CFI, 19 October 2005, CDA Datenträger Albrechts GmbH v Commission, Case T-324/00 Following a formal investigation into new and existing aid, the Commission declared the state aid granted to LCA by the German authorities incompatible with the common market (the complex facts of the case mainly (...)

ECJ, 6 October 2005, Scott SA, case C-276/03 P In 1987, the Loiret department and the town of Orléans sold a plot of land to the company Bouton Brochard Scott at a preferential price and granted it a preferential rate for the calculation of the water treatment levy following the installation by (...)

EC Comm, 6 September 2005, Community Guidelines on Financing of Airports and Start-Up Aid to Airlines Departing from Regional Airports The adoption of these guidelines is a response to recent developments in the European air transport market: the emergence of low-cost airlines and the more (...)

EC Comm, C(2005) 2712, 20 July 2005, Aid to the Mutualite Fonction Publique and its mutuelles, case E 21/2004 This Commission decision concerns qualified existing aid and sensitive areas within Member States: social security and the civil service. The Commission confirms that state measures (...)

IFC, 15 June 2005, Fred Olsen SA v. Commission, Case T-17/02 The Court of First Instance is hearing in this case an action for annulment brought by SA Olsen against a Commission decision approving State aid as justified by compensation in the context of an SGEI. That 2001 decision predates the (...)

CFI, 11 May 2005, Saxonia Edelmetalle GmbH and ZEMAG v. Commission, Joined cases T-111/01 and T-133/01 This case follows one of the many restructuring and privatisation operations of enterprises in the former German Democratic Republic. One of these operations had been notified by Germany to (...)

ECJ, 14 April 2005, Belgium v. Commission, case C-110/03 Challenges by a Member State to an exemption or procedural regulation are rare (one may recall in particular a judgment of 1966 dismissing an appeal by Italy against the enabling regulation No 19/65, ECJ, case 32/65). It is therefore (...)

ECJ, 3 March 2005, Wolfgang Heiser v. Finanzamt Innsbruck, case C-172/03 In that judgment, the Court answers a question referred by the Austrian Finanzamt for a preliminary ruling on the rules governing the adjustment of deductions of value added tax and the interpretation of Article 87 EC. (...)

EC Comm, 19 January 2005, Gibraltar Exempt Companies, case E 7/2002 (ex C 53/2001 & NN 52/2000) This decision is part of the European Commission’s examination of the different tax regimes applicable to companies registered in Gibraltar. The Commission first requested information on these (...)

EC Comm, 16 November 2004, United Kingdom - Broadband Business Fund EC Comm, 16 November 2004, United Kingdom - Broadband Scotland, case N 307/2004 EC Comm, 14 December 2004, United Kingdom - Broadband in Lincolnshire, case N 126/2004 In three similar decisions, the Commission has examined the (...)

ECJ, 11 November 2004, Daewoo Electronics Manufacturing España v. Commission, joined cases C-183/02 P and C-187/02 P Two judgments were delivered on appeal on 11 November 2004 concerning the same tax measure granted from 1995 to 1999 by the Territorio Historico de Alava in Spain, in the form of (...)

EC Commission, dec. 2006/367/EC, 20 October 2004 on the State aid partly implemented by France for the Sernam company, case C 32/2003 (ex NN 122/2000). In 2001, the Commission had authorised, under certain conditions, restructuring aid to SERNAM, a French company active in the express (...)

In the context of the amendments to the Spanish competition law legislative framework made necessary by the adoption of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (OJ L 247, 16.12.2002, p. 1). (OJ (...)

EC Comm, 20 July 2004, Italy - Urgent measures in support of the restructuring and relaunch of Alitalia (rescue aid), case N 279/2004 Alitalia has been attracting the attention of the European Commission for almost ten years and it is worth recalling a few points of reference here. Following (...)