


Jacques Derenne
Jacques Derenne is Global Co-Practice Group Leader, Antitrust & Competition of Sheppard Mullin. He is a member of the Brussels and Paris Bars. Since 1988, Jacques has advised on all aspects of competition law (mergers, cartels, abuses of dominance and State aid) and of EU law. He has experience in a variety of sectors, in particular regulated industries and services such as the postal sector, aviation, railways, energy, telecoms and tobacco products. He regularly appears in competition hearings before the European Commission, and pleads cases before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, national competition authorities, the Belgian and French courts and various regulatory bodies. With respect to State aid, Jacques Derenne has been involved in such ground-breaking cases as the Chronopost litigation (on behalf of DHL, Fedex, UFEX) on the notion of cross-subsidies and the role of national courts in State aid issues and the landmark ALSTOM restructuring aid case. Jacques State aid experience spans more than two decades, during which time he has acted for beneficiaries, competitors and Member States before the European Commission, EU and national courts. Jacques co-directed and co-authored seminal studies published by the European Commission on the private enforcement of State aid rules at national level (2006 and 2009). He also co-edited and authored several books and numerous articles and he regularly speaks at conferences on this matter. Jacques is a professor at the University of Liège (teaching State aid law in LL.M in Competition and IP Law) and at the Brussels School of Competition (’The Law and Economics of State aid’ with an economist and an EU official). He also taught competition law at the Brussels Bar between 2002 and 2008. He is a founding member of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC - College of Europe, Bruges) and is a member of its Scientific Council and its Executive Committee. He has widely published on EU constitutional, competition, in particular State aid, and regulatory issues.
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Articles
250398 Bulletin
257
The Court of Justice (‘the Court’), sitting as a Grand Chamber, dismissed an appeal lodged by the European Commission (‘the Commission’) against the General Court’s judgment annulling the Commission’s negative decision concerning the intervention of the Fondo interbancario di tutela dei depositi (...)
1155
I. Introduction State aid private enforcement continues to develop rapidly with landmark cases that are some of the most important in competition law. This special issue will look at this type of competition law private enforcement which, given the recorded cases, is as developed, if not more (...)
217
The unique EU State aid control law requires, in principle, prior notification by Member States and approval by the Commission of all State aid. During a time of crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic, EU law allows for a flexible approach for approving urgent State aid. In this post, we discuss (...)
276
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION, INVESTMENT PROTECTION AND EU STATE AID RULES: THE GENERAL COURT OF THE EU ANNULS THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S STATE AID DECISION IN THE MICULA CASE In a long-awaited ruling of June 18, 2019, the General Court of the European Union (“GCEU”) annulled the European (...)
269
On 22 December 2011, the Belgian Constitutional Court issued a preliminary ruling which confirmed the jurisdiction of the Brussels Court of Appeal to review the investigative measures of the Belgian College of Competition Prosecutors. The Court ruled that if the Belgian Competition Act were to (...)
641
1. Background Complaints and decision of the Belgian Competition Council Further to complaints lodged by twelve independent distributors of motorcycles before the Belgian Competition Council, five official importers of motorcycles (Honda, Suzuki, Ducati, Yamaha and Kawasaki) were condemned (...)
2702
Introduction On 2 April 2009, the President of the Belgian Competition Council rejected the appeal by Bofar NV ("Bofar") against the decision of the Competition Auditor, which rejected Bofar’s request for interim measures following an alleged abuse of dominance by 10 pharmaceutical companies. (...)
995
Factual Background The municipality of Oostende has granted several benefits to the fish market of Oostende. This includes the grant of start-up capital by the Autonoom Gemeentelijke Vismijn Oostende (“AGVO”); AGVO then subsequently granted financial assistance to EVO and PO. In addition, the (...)
1864
Factual background L’Agence fédérale de controle nucléaire (the Federal Agency of nuclear control) is a public organisation with legal personality in relation to protection of the population and environment against the dangers of ionizing rays. The Agency is also responsible for providing the (...)
1485
Factual background CELF is a cooperative society in public limited company form and operates as an export agent. It aims to process orders from abroad and from the French overseas territories and departments for books, brochures and any communication media and, more generally, to perform (...)
5695
1. Introduction In order to tackle the financial turmoil of last September, the Belgian State acquired in two steps Fortis Bank. Firstly, on 28 September 2008, the Belgian State (via the “SFPI”, the “Federal Participation and Investment Company”, together with the Luxembourg and the Dutch States (...)
1824
Factual Background Under the Belgian Animal Health Act 1987 (the “1987 Act”), compulsory charges were levied on slaughterhouses. These charges were subsequently used to finance animal welfare measures that improve the hygiene, health and quality of life of animals. This scheme had, however, (...)
1310
Factual Background Twelve interprofessional organisations lodged a series of actions in annulment against a ministerial decision before the administrative jurisdictions, rejecting their demand for notification to the European Commission of a provision of the French rural code (Code rural) (...)
2054
Introduction On 30 September 2008, the Brussels Court of Appeal made a preliminary reference to the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) relating to the compatibility of the Belgian procedural rules governing appeal cases with EC Regulation (EC) n° 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on (...)
2801
Factual Background This case is an appeal lodged against a judgment at first instance in which the claimant saw its request dismissed. It claimed the annulment of a local authority (city) decision confirming a concession contract for the dredging of the port of a commune. The contract was (...)
2936
Background According to his powers under the Belgian Competition Act (the Law on the Protection of Economic Competition hereinafter "LPCE"), the Belgian minister of the economy, energy and commerce has requested an investigation into the gas and electricity sectors in Belgium to the (...)
1882
Factual Background The syndicate seeks the annulment of the judgment of the administrative court of Pau (first instance) in which the applicant had obtained the annulment of a decision of the city of Bayonne granting a concession to an undertaking for the operation of public transport. The (...)
1984
Factual Background The society Primistères Reynoird imports goods from the continental part of France and other Member States of the European Union to Guyana and paid the levies in relation to the dock dues and an additional tax for the period between 1 October 1991 and 31 December 1992. In (...)
1777
Factual Background The appellant is a group of pork producers also active in the field of slaughtering, cutting and pork meat processing. The undertaking, supported by Syndigel, which is a syndicate of wholesalers, seeks the annulment of an administrative decision of the Ministers of economy (...)
4220
Factual Background This case concerns a public tender procedure in which VZW Merlijn Marketeer (“VZW”) was awarded the assignment to investigate the existing customer relations of the National Bank of Belgium (“Bank”). VWZ’s offer was the most economical, in that it was the lowest price of all the (...)
4102
Background The product concerned was BBP (butyl benzyl phthalate), a chemical which is mostly used in the production of PVC products. The cartel culminated in scheduled meetings where the participants, the three main producers of BBP in Belgium and a distributor colluded by price fixing, (...)
1775
Factual Background The appellant seeks the annulment of the judgment of the administrative tribunal of Amiens dated 16 November 2006 in which the undertaking’s claim for repayment of additional taxes paid on societies and VAT was rejected. The appellant is active in the field of washing, (...)
1708
Factual Background In this case, the Minister of Economy and Finances seeks the annulment of the administrative tribunal of first instance decision allowing the defendants restitution of the payment of taxes on advertising expenses paid for the year 2002. Between the judgment of the first (...)
1671
Factual background The Fédération royale de l’industrie des Eaux et boissons rafraichissantes (the “Federation”) sought the annulment of a law of March 2007. The Federation alleged that the law constituted State aid, even if the measure pursues the legitimate objective of protection of (...)
7163
The Belgian Competition Council has fined Vebic Euro 29,121 for an infringement of Article 2 of the Belgian Competition Act, the Belgian equivalent of Article 81 EC. The association (whose members are producers and retailers of bakery products) was condemned by the Competition Council for (...)
1792
Factual Background The appellant seeks the annulment of a decree relating to the calculation and the rate of a tax on slaughtering. The tax is instituted in application of a provision of the General Tax code (Article 302 bis ZD) is applied to slaughterhouse and is designed to finance the (...)
1251
Factual Background The appellants seek the annulment of the administrative tribunal of Nice decision rejecting its demand for tax paid on meat purchases. The tribunal had judged that considering that the tax had been integrated in the general budget of the State, it was not obliged to rule on (...)
1120
Factual Background The appellants seek the annulment of the judgement of the tribunal of first instance in which the tribunal rejected the repayment of taxes paid on meat purchases for the period 2001 to 2003 and 2001 to 2002. Summary of the Court’s findings The court adopts the same (...)
1033
Factual background In the decision of the Court of Appeal of Brussels of 16 March 2005, it was held that the Belgian State was not wrong to allow Belgacom, the incumbent Belgian telecommunication company to benefit from a tax exemption pursuant to a provision in a law of 1930 and included in (...)
1479
Factual Background The appellants seek the annulment of an order of the tribunal of first instance in which the tribunal rejected the repayment of taxes paid on meat purchases, instituted by Article 302 bis ZD of the general tax code, for which it was subject for the period 2001 to 2003 for an (...)
4471
Background When a company applies for leniency to one competition authority (a national competition authority or the European Commission) this application is not taken into consideration by the other competition authorities. The company therefore has to complete multiple applications to (...)
1846
Factual Background Régie Networks, an undertaking selling advertising space for the NRJ Group’s local radio stations, paid EUR 152 524 by way of parafiscal charge levied on advertisements broadcast on radio and television in 2001. It claimed reimbursement of that sum from the local tax (...)
2088
Factual Background The appellant seeks the annulment of a judgment of the administrative tribunal of Versailles of 14 March 2006 in favour of the society SA Daimler Chrysler France, which claimed the reimbursement of tax paid in 2002 on certain advertising expenses. Before the tribunal of (...)
1819
Factual Background The society seeks the annulment the administrative tribunal of Clermont-Ferrand judgment rejecting its claims for reimbursement of a tax on the expenses of the trade chambers (from 1991 to 2002). The disputed tax is instituted by a provision of the general tax code and is (...)
1939
Factual Background The company Laboratoires Boiron appeals the judgment of the Court of appeal of Lyon in litigation concerning a provision of the French Code de la santé publique (Public Health Code). The appellants which is a pharmaceutical laboratory specialising in homeopathic medicines (...)
5391
Background Directive 2002/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services (Universal Service Directive) (OJEC L 108, 24 April 2002, pp. 51-77) provides that national regulatory (...)
1225
Factual Background The claimants contested the taxation of an indemnity paid to public servants having changed their regime of mutual insurance. This sum was taxed under Article 160-0 A of the General Tax Code. The claimants argued that the tax led to an infringement of article 3 g) EC and (...)
1852
Factual Background This case is one in a series of cases against pharmaceutical producers and wholesale distributors concerning a provision of the French Code de la santé publique (Public Health Code). The relevant provision obliges pharmaceutical wholesalers to stock enough medical products to (...)
1905
Factual Background SA Damart is an undertaking which sells advertising spaces inside free newspapers. The claimant requested the recovery of a tax imposed on certain commercial expenses as set by Article 302 bis of the Tax code. The Minister of Economy and Finances lodged an appeal before the (...)
2266
Factual Background The Minister of Economy and Finance seeks the annulment of the judgment of the administrative tribunal of Caen allowing the request of wholesalers claiming restitution for a tax paid on expenses for advertisement. The tax is set by Article 302 bis MA of the general code on (...)
1431
Factual Background Atac is an undertaking selling advertising spaces inside free newspapers. The claimant requested the recovery of a tax imposed on certain commercial expenses as set out by Article 302 bis of the Tax code. At first instance, the administrative tribunal of Lille held that the (...)
2774
On 31 October 2006, the Belgian Minister of Economy has adopted nine decrees implementing the new Law on the Protection of Economic Competition. They entered retroactively into force on 1st October 2006, at the same date as the Law itself. These royal decrees cover essentially procedural (...)
1776
Factual Background The claimants seek the annulment of judgments by the administrative tribunal of Nice rejecting their claim for a refund of the tax on meat purchase, instituted by Article 302 ZD of the general tax code. The tax was initially designed to finance the public service of (...)
5683
Background Electronic payment card schemes involve two basic operators : the “issuing bank”, which is a credit institution, and member of a card scheme, that has a contractual relationship with a cardholder for the provision and use of a card of that card scheme ; and the “acquiring bank”, which (...)
1855
Factual Background The appellant sought the restitution of a tax for the support of the trade and craft industry ("TACA") paid between 2003 and 2005. Toys’R’US brought a claim before the tribunal for social security of Evry, which dismissed the demand. The TACA is a progressive tax borne (...)
1696
Factual Background The appellant seeks the annulment of the case of the court of appeal of Caen in which the court had rejected its claim for the grant of a refund in relation to a tax for the support of the trade and craft industry ("TACA") paid between 2003 and 2005. The TACA is a (...)
1886
Factual Background The appellant seeks the annulment of the extension of an interprofessional agreement concluded in the legal framework of the field of foie gras. The decree which is disputed here extended the scope of a provision of the rural Code on the implementation of actions of (...)
1997
Factual Background A federation of wholesalers, supported by undertakings active in the sector, seeks the annulment (excès de pouvoir) of a decree modifying the implementation of a tax to support the trade and craft sectors (TACA). The TACA is a progressive tax borne directly by retail stores (...)
2867
On October 1st, 2006, the new Belgian competition law entered into force. The objective of the reform was twofold: to bring Belgian law in line with recent developments at the EU level and reinforce the Belgian competition authority. The new Competition Act (further abbreviated as “the Act”) has (...)
2040
Factual Background This case is one of a series of cases against pharmaceutical producers and wholesale distributors concerning a provision of the French Code de la santé publique (Public Health Code). This provision obliges pharmaceutical wholesaler to keep a permanent stock of medicinal (...)
2238
Factual Background The appellants are exploiting several retail premises and were therefore subject to the tax on the support of the trade and craft industry ("TACA"). The TACA is a progressive tax borne directly by retail stores in France which have a sales area exceeding 400 m2 and an annual (...)
1860
Factual background The defendant is an undertaking active in the sector of production of food for cattle. It paid contributions to the Health and Animal Protection Funds pursuant to a provision of national law of December 1987 and implementing acts (Royal-Decree). The provision had not been (...)
2410
Factual Background For several years, NV A.A. offered its clients a hospital admission insurance policy. This insurance which complementary to the mandatory insurance provided by health insurance funds. In 1999, NV A.A. paid the sum of € 705,883.73 in tax regarding these insurance contracts for (...)
1900
Factual background The tribunal of Gand refered a question for preliminary ruling to the Arbitration court relating to the validity of a provision of the Belgian fiscal code granting a housing tax exemption for property. Belgacom contested the payment of the taxes after it lost the benefit of (...)
2202
Factual background CELF is a cooperative society in public limited company form and carries on the activity of export agent. Its aims are to process directly orders for abroad and the French overseas territories and departments for books, brochures and any communication media and, more (...)
1857
Factual Background The appellant is the legal representative for a society and seeks the annulment of the judgment of the court of appeal of Rennes. On 31 December 1999, the society Tricotages de l’AA concluded a collective agreement for the reduction of working time pursuant to the law of 13 (...)
1839
Factual Background The claimant, a low cost airline established in Ireland, sought the annulment of the deliberation of the chamber of commerce of Strasbourg and the decisions of its president to sign, in execution of this deliberation, two agreements (principal agreement and supplemental (...)
2062
Factual Background A Law of 12 April 1996 gives the State the ability to conclude framework agreements with professional branches in the textile, clothing, leather and shoe sector in order to maintain or develop employment in these sectors ("Borotra plan"). The agreements enable the (...)
6265
In November 1999, Neuf Télécom, a telecommunications operator, filed a complaint with the French Competition Council (hereinafter “the Council”) against France Télécom, the French historic telephone and Internet provider, on the grounds that the latter was conducting anti-competitive practices on the (...)
6713
In April 2000, Productions & Marketing requested authorisation from SABAM (Belgian Society of Authors) to use works of its catalogue for five concerts. SABAM offers a preferential tariff (50% price reduction) to companies considered as "big organisers". SABAM refused to grant Productions (...)
4802
The La Provence group owns the two main regional daily newspapers distributed in Marseille (Southern France) namely Le Provençal and Le Méridional. The two newspapers transferred the exclusive responsibility for managing local advertising to Eurosud Publicité ; however, the commercial policy was (...)
8202
This is a judgment of the Brussels Court of Appeal responding to a request for a preliminary ruling from the Court d’appel de Liège ("Court of Appeal of Liège"), on the application of Article 81 EC and vertical block exemption regulations to a beer supply agreement setting up an exclusive (...)
4564
Following a request by Kapitol, a Belgian provider of phone directories, based on Directive 98/10/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 26 February 1998, on the application of open network provision (ONP) to voice telephony and on universal service for telecommunications in a (...)
8272
This is a judgment of the Court of Appeal of Paris applying Article 81 EC which has been transmitted to the European Commission by virtue of Article 15(2) of Regulation n° 1/2003 and has been published on DG Competition’s website (See also on this case, C. Mai-Doremus and J. Philippe, The Paris (...)
4964
This Order has been adopted by the Tribunal Supremo (“TS”) in the appeal lodged against a judgment of the Audiencia Nacional (“AN”) which decided on the appeal against a decision adopted by the Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia (“TDC”) granting an individual exemption to an agreement on (...)
1439
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The claimant and other parties brought an action for reimbursement of certain social security contributions for retiring craftsmen and traders, from ORGANIC which they had paid during the period from 2000 to 2002. The claimant requested the (...)
1643
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The claimant requested the Conseil d’Etat to annul an order ("arrêté") of the Ministry of the Economy, which laid down the method of calculation and rates of slaughter tax, allocated to the financing of the elimination of animal waste and (...)
4752
Background The Law of 24 March 1987 on animal health established a system to finance services to combat animal diseases and improve animal hygiene and the health and quality of animals and animal products. The complainants were required to make contributions to this system. The Belgian State (...)
4949
Background Studio 26, a retail shop selling luxury brand shoes and leather products, lodged a complaint with the Competition Council alleging practices aiming at fixing the resale price of shoes by Rossimoda, an Italian subsidiary of LVMH. Studio 26 based its claim on letters received from (...)
6057
Background On 16 March 1994, Mr. Besseyre who ran a coffee shop in Angers (central France) entered into a beer supply agreement with Kronenbourg under which he would exclusively purchase all of his beer requirements from Kronenbourg for a ten year period. In February 2002, Mr. Besseyre sold (...)
4093
For the first time, the Paris Court of Appeal increased the amount of fines imposed by the Competition Council. Although this decision does not implement EC competition law, but French competition law provisions, it is worth mentioning here In February 2000, the Competition Council ruled that (...)
9914
The Belgian Commercial Court examined whether certain practices by the defendants infringed Article 81 EC, and in particular whether such practices could benefit from the provisions contained in the applicable EC block exemption regulation relating to the application of Article 81(3) EC to (...)
1517
Brief description of the facts and legal issues A laboratory filed an action for the refund of a Sociàl Security contribution arguing that this contribution was unlawful State aid, because certain laboratories were exempt. Referring to the Banks case (Joined Cases C-390/98, Banks & Co v (...)
2778
L’adoption du Règlement (CE) n° 1/2003, du Conseil, du 16 décembre 2002, relatif à la mise en oeuvre des règles de concurrence prévues aux articles 81 et 82 du traité (JOCE L 1, du 4 janvier 2003, pp. 1-25) a rendu nécessaires plusieurs modifications du cadre législatif espagnol du droit de la (...)
1296
Brief description of the facts and legal issues A retail store filed an action for reimbursement of a tax, which it considered to constitute State aid, because the tax was only payable by big retail stores, whereas only small retail stores were eligible to receive the retirement benefits (...)
4028
Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia, Case 578/04, EKO-AMA / MONDARIZ, 2 November 2004 Background The producer of bottled water Mondariz supplied EKO-AMA (a central purchase company that also operates supermarkets with bottles of water, fixing minimum resale prices for bottles of 1,5L (since (...)
1221
Brief description of the facts and legal issues A law of 1996 enabled the French government to sign agreements with undertakings in the clothing, leather, shoe and textile sectors regarding a reduction in working time, in order to avoid redundancies. In return, the French government granted an (...)
1825
Brief description of the facts and legal issues Gemo, a medium-sized supermarket, contested the legality of the tax. In 2000, the Administrative Court of Lyon ordered the reimbursement of the tax to Gemo. The Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry appealed this decision and the Conseil (...)
4010
According to the Court of appeal judgement dated 21 May 2004, national court is obliged under its duty of sincere cooperation to give a great deal of deference to the Commission and is not entitled to reconsider the Commission’s previous decisions even if it thinks that they are wrong. Damages (...)
1215
Brief description of the facts and legal issues A French law of 1997 determined the ownership status of a high-voltage electricity network. As a result, the reserves previously built up by EDF (free of tax) over the period from 1987 to 1996 became superfluous. Some reserves were directly (...)
4941
On 25 January 2006, the Commission decided to bring before the European Court of Jutsice (“ECJ”) an action against Belgium for failure to comply with a Commission’s decision declaring a State aid incompatible with the common market (see IP:). On 24 April 2002, the Commission had ruled that the (...)
1838
Brief description of the facts and legal issues Professional associations for the agricultural sector filed a claim, in summary proceedings, for the suspension ("référé-suspension") of a ministerial order ("arrêté") setting out different methods for implementing the tax. They argued, inter alia, (...)
5822
Facts of the case Days Medical Aids Ltd (“DMA”) carried on business as, inter alia, an importer of wheelchairs and scooters designed to assist people with mobility problems. Pihsiang Machinery Manufacturing Co Ltd (“PMM”) exported substantial numbers of scooters worldwide. In 1996, DMA and PMM (...)
1550
Brief description of the facts and legal issues In June 1997, CDR sold its majority holding in Stardust Marine ("Stardust") to FG Marine. In September 1999, the Commission considered that the State aid granted to Stardust was incompatible with the Common Market and ordered reimbursement of the (...)
1227
Brief description of the facts and legal issues A law of 1996 enabled the French government to sign agreements with undertakings in the clothing, leather, shoe and textile sectors regarding a reduction in working time, in order to avoid redundancies. In return, the French government granted an (...)
1406
Brief description of the facts and legal issues In 1996, the French government set up a system for the free collection and disposal of animal carcasses and slaughterhouse waste for farmers and slaughterhouses. This system was financed by a tax payable by any person active in the retail sale of (...)
1807
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The claimant contested the legality of the tax. Summary of the Court’s findings The Administrative Court of Lille stated that stockbreeders were the quasi-exclusive beneficiaries of the services financed by the tax. The Lille Court considered (...)
1692
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The claimant contested the legality of the tax, arguing, inter alia, that it was part of an unlawful State aid scheme. Summary of the Court’s findings The Administrative Court of Orléans stated that the scheme financed by this tax did not (...)
1675
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry published an administrative notice ("instruction") merely mentioning the provisions of the law. The legality of this notice was challenged. Summary of the Court’s findings According to (...)
1631
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The claimant contested the legality of the tax in question, as well as that of another tax financing the processing of bones. It argued that these taxes were incompatible with Articles 90, 87 and 88 EC. Summary of the Court’s findings First, the (...)
1247
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The Social Security Court of Créteil requested a preliminary ruling from the ECJ on a tax advantage enjoyed by undertakings entrusted with the operation of a public service, such as wholesale distributors supplying medicines to pharmacies. In a (...)
1899
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The claimant contested the legality of the tax, arguing inter alia that it was part of an unlawful State aid scheme. Summary of the Court’s findings The Caen Court stated that the scheme financed by this tax was not State aid. The Caen Court (...)
1245
Brief description of the facts and legal issues In 1990, the claimant, a building company, submitted a bid for an extension to the Marseille airport, for which an Italian company was finally selected. It sued the Italian company in the commercial courts for damages for unfair competition, (...)
1702
Brief description of the facts and legal issues In 1996, the French government set up a system for the free collection and disposal of animal carcasses and slaughterhouse waste for farmers and slaughterhouses. This system was financed by a tax payable by any person active in the retail sale of (...)
1584
Brief description of the facts and legal issues The claimant requested that the Conseil d’Etat annul a decree ("décret") relating to the creation of a special tax on basic oils in favour of the Agency for the Environment and the Management of Energy ("Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise (...)
394018 Review
21
After a short consultation with Member States, the Commission has adopted a Communication establishing a new temporary crisis framework for the implementation of state aid rules to support the economy in the aftermath of the conflict in Ukraine (hereafter "Ukraine Temporary Framework", (...)
14
Par son arrêt du 10 mars 2022, la Cour de justice a rejeté le pourvoi de la Commission contre les arrêts du Tribunal du 12 décembre 2018, Freistaat Bayern contre Commission (T-683/15, ci-après le “premier arrêt attaqué”, EU:T:2018:916), et Interessengemeinschaft privater Milchverarbeiter Bayerns (...)
17
The annotated judgment is rather strange because it only "pushes open doors" on its state aid aspects. This is the granting by the Romanian authorities of guaranteed access to the electricity grids for the electricity produced by two power generation companies in order to ensure continuous (...)
20
The Court of Justice dismisses an appeal against an order of the Court of First Instance dismissing the case and examines, in particular, the question whether Deutsche Lufthansa AG ["hereinafter Lufthansa"] was substantially affected by aid which had been granted to Frankfurt-Hahn airport in (...)
85
As part of a regular adjustment to its March 2020 temporary framework on "Covid-19 aid," the Commission adopted a 6th amendment on November 18, 2021 that focuses on the following. The Commission has, first of all, in order to give a (last?) period of adjustment to the Member States and (...)
36
On November 11, 2021, the Court of Justice dismissed the appeal of the concessionary undertaking for a section of the A2 freeway in Poland [Autostrada Wielkopolska, hereinafter "AW"] against the judgment delivered on October 24, 2019 by the General Court in Case T-778/17(Autostrada Wielkopolska (...)
81
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 (...)
60
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 (...)
122
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 (...)
101
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, (...)
193
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 (...)
132
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, (...)
120
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 (...)
67
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 (...)
78
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 (...)
118
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 (...)
97
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. (...)
80
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 (...)
82
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 (...)
156
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 (...)
165
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, (...)
121
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 (...)
139
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. (...)
912
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 (...)
93
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 (...)
178
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 (...)
290
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 (...)
218
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 (...)
219
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 (...)
207
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 (...)
6898
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 (...)
429
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), (...)
142
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 (...)
184
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 (...)
138
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 (...)
109
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 (...)
356
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 (...)
247
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. (...)
158
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 (...)
116
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 (...)
187
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 (...)
333
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 (...)
264
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 (...)
198
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 (...)
398
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 (...)
228
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 (...)
289
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 (...)
180
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 (...)
135
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 (...)
196
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 (...)
252
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 (...)
128
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 (...)
284
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 (...)
297
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 (...)
199
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. (...)
186
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 (...)
253
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 (...)
232
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 (...)
120
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 (...)
242
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 (...)
219
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 (...)
167
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 (...)
223
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 (...)
156
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 (...)
413
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 (...)
125
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 (...)
396
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 (...)
289
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 (...)
172
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 (...)
184
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. (...)
409
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 (...)
226
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 (...)
251
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 (...)
182
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 (...)
162
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 (...)
193
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 (...)
136
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, (...)
298
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 (...)
127
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 (...)
152
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, (...)
113
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 (...)
150
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 (...)
228
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 (...)
1063
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 (...)
156
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 (...)
230
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 (...)
156
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 (...)
181
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 (...)
177
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 (...)
249
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 (...)
129
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 (...)
262
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 (...)
247
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 (...)
249
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 (...)
240
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 (...)
270
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 (...)
360
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 (...)
212
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 (...)
245
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 (...)
306
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 (...)
114
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 (...)
1272
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. (...)
248
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 (...)
152
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 (...)
253
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 (...)
152
[ 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 (...)
157
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 (...)
147
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 (...)
191
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 (...)
133
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 (...)
138
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 (...)
348
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 (...)
218
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 (...)
132
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 (...)
212
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 (...)
179
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 (...)
142
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 (...)
195
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 (...)
366
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 (...)
175
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 (...)
119
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 (...)
257
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 (...)
234
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 (...)
189
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 (...)
199
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 (...)
152
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 (...)
294
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 (...)
157
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 (...)
117
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 (...)
159
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 (...)
142
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 (...)
188
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 (...)
225
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, (...)
194
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 (...)
158
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 (...)
191
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 (...)
184
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 (...)
152
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 (...)
204
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 (...)
133
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 (...)
218
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 (...)
139
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 (...)
172
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 (...)
205
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 (...)
228
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 (...)
228
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 (...)
257
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 (...)
408
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 (...)
282
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 (...)
579
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 (...)
392
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 (...)
388
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 (...)
219
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 (...)
1429
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 (...)
168
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 (...)
385
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 (...)
421
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 (...)
615
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 (...)
262
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 (...)
496
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 (...)
421
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 (...)
400
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 (...)
744
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 (...)
381
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 (...)
221
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 (...)
766
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 (...)
700
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 (...)
545
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 (...)
657
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 (...)
707
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 (...)
940
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 (...)
377
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 (...)
712
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 (...)
640
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 (...)
814
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 (...)
865
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 (...)
902
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 (...)
1516
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 (...)
1339
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, (...)
1818
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 (...)
893
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 (...)
1148
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 (...)
880
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 (...)
1808
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 (...)
2335
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 (...)
2134
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 (...)
1897
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 (...)
1099
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 (...)
1931
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 (...)
2093
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 (...)
2906
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 (...)
1357
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 (...)
2326
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 (...)
2391
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 (...)
3048
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 (...)
1902
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. (...)
2044
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 (...)
2341
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 (...)
2052
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 (...)
3036
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 (...)
2321
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 (...)
2182
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 (...)
2823
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 (...)
3125
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 (...)
2147
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 (...)
2588
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 (...)
3170
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 (...)
2281
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 (...)
3033
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 (...)
2822
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 ___________________________________________________________ (...)
3143
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 (...)
3319
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 (...)
4347
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 (...)
2949
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 (...)
5261
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 (...)
1747
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 (...)
2628
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 (...)
2693
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 (...)
2711
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 (...)
2863
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 (...)
1854
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 (...)
3931
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 (...)
3225
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 (...)
3350
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 (...)
4405
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 (...)
10264
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 (...)
3507
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 (...)
3529
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 (...)
4640
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 (...)
3798
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 (...)
3416
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 (...)
3541
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 (...)
3349
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 (...)
3382
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 (...)
3552
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 (...)
4514
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 (...)
4592
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 (...)
3696
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 (...)
4168
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 (...)
3796
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 (...)
3508
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 (...)
3641
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. (...)
4120
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 (...)
4153
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 (...)
4166
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 (...)
4177
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) (...)
3860
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 (...)
3834
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 (...)
4244
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 (...)
3962
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 (...)
4381
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 (...)
4145
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 (...)
5187
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 (...)
18640
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 (...)
4250
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, (...)
4547
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, (...)
5592
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 (...)
4707
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. (...)
4041
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 (...)
4340
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 (...)
4065
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 (...)
4083
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 (...)
4915
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 (...)
4456
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 (...)
3586
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 (...)
4237
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 (...)
6022
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. (...)
4371
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 (...)
3915
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 (...)
5663
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 (...)
4092
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 (...)
4090
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 (...)
3914
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 (...)
Books

This 5th edition of the Competition Law Digest provides readers with a synthesis of leading antitrust cases from 1990 to 2021, from the EU & Member States, the US, and other relevant (...)

The Digest comprises 41 essays and is structured in two parts: Part I deals with competition rules in general (procedural rules, unilateral practices, mergers...), whereas Part II is dedicated to (...)

Le Dictionnaire de droit de la concurrence, sous la direction scientifique du Professeur Muriel Chagny et Emmanuel Combe, rassemble plus de 250 définitions essentielles à la bonne compréhension du (...)