Raphaël Vuitton

In order to ensure more efficient and environmentally friendly use, the Spanish authorities have introduced, by a law of 2012, a charge on the use of inland waters for the production of electricity, for which Spanish hydroelectric power producers are liable. This law was implemented by a decree (...)

The Commission has launched a public consultation - closed at the time of writing this column - in order to seek the public’s opinion on a draft amendment to the General Block Exemption Regulation (OJ 2014, L 187, p. 1) to exempt from notification aid granted by national funds for projects also (...)

We have already had the opportunity, in a previous column, to highlight the inventiveness of the state authorities in terms of support measures for the production of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES). This inventiveness is matched only by the diversity and complexity of the (...)

Lithuania’s natural gas supply is mainly dependent on a single supplier, Gazprom, whose commercial policy is largely influenced by geopolitical interests, which often diverge from those of EU Member States. In order to secure this supply, the Lithuanian authorities have commissioned Klaipėdos (...)

As was the case in 2006 and again in 2009, the Commission published a study on the enforcement of state aid rules and decisions by national courts. Covering all Member States, it is divided into four parts. First, it presents its legal background, objectives and methodology. This is followed by (...)

The facts underlying the case giving rise to the judgment under comment are particularly old. They go back to the adoption in 1984 by Italy of legislation to promote employment, which introduced a "training and work contract". This was a fixed-term contract, with a training period, for the (...)

Background In order to improve the public transport offer, the Île-de-France region adopted a decision in 1994, renewing a mechanism that had existed since 1979. The purpose of the decision was to grant aid to public authorities which had concluded contracts for the operation of regular bus (...)

Although the cherry season is short, this is not the case for disputes concerning State aid arising from the famous French "contingency plans". Indeed, these are - once again - in the news, thanks to the judgment under commentary concerning the recovery of aid paid to cherry producers. As we (...)

After the cases concerning State aid to the football clubs of Barcelona, Bilbao and Alicante, mentioned in the previous issue of this column (Trib. EU, 26 Feb. 2019, Athletic Club, Case T-679/16, EU:T:2019:112, Trib. UE, 26 Feb. 2019, Fútbol Club Barcelona, Case T-865/16, EU:T:2019:113, Trib. (...)

The Court of Justice of the European Union has already had occasion to approach the reinsurance activity from the point of view of the provisions on State aid. It has been so in particular in cases concerning guarantees granted by a national public institution for risks relating to foreign (...)

Does a national court have jurisdiction to assess the compatibility of a condition for the application of an aid scheme which is inseparably linked to the subject-matter of the scheme? That question, which is not new, was again referred to the Court in A-Fonds, with the particularity that the (...)

The judgment under comment puts an end to a dispute initiated by several companies, including Carrefour Hypermarkets and Fnac, which wanted to obtain the reimbursement of the tax on the sale and rental of videograms for private use that they had had to pay. The purpose of this tax, like the tax (...)

The situation of professional football clubs has for several years been the subject of particular attention by the Commission under the State aid rules. Therefore, in October 2012, the Commission sent a letter to all Member States to gather information on the financing of these clubs. As a (...)

The Prime Minister’s Circular of 5 February 2019 on the application of European competition rules relating to public aid to economic activities, on the one hand, provides administrations with the information and methodology needed to understand the regulations on State aid and, on the other (...)

The aid granted by the Italian authorities to the Tirrenia shipping group is regularly brought before the Italian and European courts. This veritable judicial saga is akin, for the Union judge, to the plaster of Captain Haddock in the "Tournesol case" (see, in particular, Court judgments of 9 (...)

Like many Member States, German public broadcasting is financed by advertising and other commercial revenues, but also, mainly, by tax resources. Initially, in Germany, the latter came from an audiovisual licence fee payable for the possession of audiovisual reception equipment ("one equipment; (...)

In Germany, milk quality is traditionally assured by independent quality tests. In Bavaria, these tests are financed by resources from a levy imposed on milk purchasers by a Federal Milk and Fat Law (hereinafter ’the MFG’) and from the general budget of that Land. Background On 17 July 2013, (...)

The judicial saga of the Dutch housing companies (woningcorporaties or wocos) has just been taken a step further by a judgment of the Court of First Instance of 15 November, ruling on actions brought by those non-profit-making bodies whose task is, inter alia, to acquire, build and rent out (...)

Very classical in principle, the judgment under comment is in line with previous "failure on failure" judgments concerning the non-performance of a State aid recovery obligation (see, for example, recently, CJEU, 17 Sept. 2015, Commission v. Italy, case C-367/14, EU:C:2015:611, comm. R. (...)

The question of the liability of the State for the granting of State aid is currently the subject of numerous developments in the case law of the French administrative courts. For example, having established that the recovery, even if late, of unlawful aid cannot engage the State’s (...)

Does a substantial increase in the revenue from a tax financing an aid scheme authorised by the Commission compared with the forecasts provided when the scheme was notified constitute ’new aid’? That is, in essence, the question which the Court was called upon to answer in the context of actions (...)

A new, and perhaps final, episode in the litigation concerning the Spanish measures to finance the deployment of digital terrestrial television has just come to light, in so far as those measures concern the Community of Castile-La Mancha. It will be recalled that the actions brought by Spain, (...)

Following the judgment of 28 November 2017, Steel Invest & Finance (Case T-254/16, EU:T:2017:842, comm. R. Vuitton, ConcurrencesNo 1-2018, pp. 141-143.), the aid granted to the Belgian steel group Duferco gave rise to two new decisions of the Court of First Instance, the main lessons of (...)

Issued as a result of the cases concerning the regime of participation of companies taxable in Spain in a foreign company (Trib. EU, 7 Nov. 2014, Autogrill España, case T-219/10, EU:T:2014:939 and Banco Santander and Santusa, case T-399/11, EU:T:2014:938, comm. J. Derenne, ConcurrencesNo. (...)

On 16 July 2018, the Commission adopted, by means of a Communication, a new Code of Best Practices for the conduct of State aid control procedures (OJEU 2018, C 253, p. 14), which is part of the modernisation programme implemented over the last few years. This Code replaces the previous one, (...)

As an essential infrastructure for the development of international trade, seaports are the subject of long-standing and substantial support from the Member States. In order to ensure fair competition between all EU ports and to clarify their situation under the State aid rules, the Commission (...)

In a case brought by a Bulgarian court, in a dispute between the tax authorities and a farmer, the Court recalled that, while Article 108(3) TFEU requires Member States to notify the Commission of their plans for State aid before they are put into effect, it does not, on the other hand, require (...)

The saga of aid to the Coopérative d’exportation du livre français (CELF) has just been taken a step further. The Conseil d’État has been called upon to rule on an appeal concerning a liability action brought by the liquidator of CELF against the French State, which sought compensation for damage (...)

The present case is set against the background, now well known because of the ensuing litigation, of the measures to finance the roll-out of digital terrestrial television, which were adopted by Spain between 2005 and 2009. It will therefore be recalled that in 2010 the Commission opened two (...)

While not regarded as a model of brevity, the judgment in the Naviera Armas case provides interesting insights into the determination of the existence of serious difficulties in the preliminary phase of the examination of an aid measure and the Commission’s obligation of diligent examination in (...)

The context of the judgments under comment is the same as that which led to the Court’s judgmentof 9 November 2017, Commission v. Greece (Case C-481/16).which was the subject of a comment in the previous issue of the magazine Concurrences (comm. R Vuitton, Concurrences No. 1-2018, pp. 134-136). (...)

Almost ten years after the first judgment concerning aid granted in the context of Charleroi airport (Trib. EU, 17 Dec. 2008, Ryanair, Case T-196/04, comm. J. Derenne, Concurrences n° 1-2009, pp. 157-158), the Court of First Instance has just issued a new decision, this time confirming the (...)

While this case serves to illustrate the classical case-law according to which the difficulties experienced by an undertaking do not affect the obligation to recover aid from it, it highlights once again the slowness with which the Commission can establish the failure to comply with this (...)

The Duferco Group produces and sells steel in some 50 countries around the world. Established in Belgium in 1997, it acquired various steel sites until 2002. Following this wave of acquisitions, it had three subsidiaries in Belgium. In 2006, the Duferco Group entered into a strategic (...)

Disputes relating to the unlawful aid scheme arising from Article 44 septies of the General Tax Code remain lively before the French courts (for earlier examples, see J. DerenneConcurrences, , No 3-2013, p. 134). After the Conseil d’État recently dismissed an appeal by a company challenging the (...)

Are the difficulties involved in implementing an asset sale of a company, approved by the Commission under the State aid rules, likely to postpone the obligation to recover aid previously granted to that company arising from another Commission decision? That is essentially the question which (...)

During 2017, the litigation relating to State aid granted in the context of the public service delegation (PSD) for maritime services to Corsica gave rise to numerous decisions of the European courts, and in particular of the Court of First Instance (Trib. UE, 1 March 2017, France v Commission, (...)

In order to ensure the sustainable development of energy supply or to reduce the cost to their economies, Member States have been adopting specific legislation for several years. The inventiveness of the State authorities is matched in this respect only by the diversity and complexity of the (...)

The disappearance of its principal actor - by judicial liquidation - does not prevent the judicial saga of the State aid granted to the Société nationale Corse Méditerranée (SNCM) from continuing. The epilogue nevertheless appears to be drawing ever closer. Background The dispute which led to the (...)

Can a Member State be held liable for the unlawful grant of State aid and its late recovery by the recipient of that aid? That is the question which the French Conseil d’État was called upon to decide in the context of an appeal brought by the company Le Muselet Valentin against a judgment of the (...)

As a legal mechanism allowing the payment of a debt by the assignment to the creditor of the ownership of an asset belonging to the debtor, the dation in payment has, until now, not been exhaustively apprehended from the point of view of State aid provisions (see nevertheless Trib. EU, 23 Nov. (...)

While European policy on State aid has been undergoing a profound renewal and extensive modernisation in recent years, the French guidelines in this area were still based on the Prime Minister’s circular of 26 January 2006 on the application at local level of the Community competition rules on (...)

Winingcorporaties (hereinafter referred to as ’wocos’) are Dutch non-profit organisations whose tasks include the purchase, construction and rental of housing for disadvantaged people. In 2002, after the Dutch authorities notified the aid scheme for wocos to the Commission, the Commission (...)

Despite the disappearance of its main player - the Société nationale Corse Méditerranée (SNCM) - the judicial saga of the dispute concerning State aid for the maritime link between France and Corsica, which has been on the registers of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Justice for many (...)

Anxious to preserve press pluralism, the French authorities introduced, by Decree No 86-616 of 12 March 1986 (JORF 1986, p. 4702, hereinafter the ’1986 Decree’), an aid scheme for national daily political and general information newspapers with low advertising resources. Only national daily (...)

In a judgment concerning the Irish Air Transport Tax ("ATT"), the Court provided important clarifications on the recovery of state aid, in particular whether the Commission must, in determining the amount of aid to be recovered, take into account the fact that the beneficiaries passed on the (...)

In order to enable the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting, the Spanish authorities adopted measures between 2005 and 2009 to finance the roll-out of digital terrestrial television (DTT). Background In 2009, the Commission received a complaint from a European satellite operator (...)

Until 2009, RTVE, Spain’s public service broadcaster, received mixed funding based on revenues from its commercial activities, including the sale of advertising space, on the one hand, and compensation from the Spanish State for the fulfilment of its public service mission, on the other. This (...)

While within the Tribunal there are two divergent approaches to the assessment of the concept of "advantage" in the context of ad hoc individual measures (see Concurrences n°4-2016, pp. 150-153), the Court was given the opportunity to clarify the debate in the context of the appeal brought by (...)

Maintaining media pluralism and the quality of media content is an essential element for a vibrant democracy and is the subject of public support in most Member States. In view of their objectives, such support is generally viewed favourably by the Commission in the context of its State aid (...)

In the context of the opening up of the electricity sector to competition, initially brought about by Directive 96/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity (OJEC 1996, L 27, p. 20), certain Member (...)

The saga of the State aid granted to Deutsche Post has just taken a new turn, with a judgment of the Court of First Instance once again annulling a Commission decision on the matter. Since the opening of the first formal investigation procedure into this aid in 1999, no fewer than ten cases (...)

From 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2005, the Belgian authorities participated in the financing of tests for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), made compulsory by Regulation No 999/2001 of 29 May 2001 laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible (...)

In order to tackle the difficulties encountered in the 2000s by the household appliances manufacturer FagorBrandt, the French subsidiary of the FagorBrandt group, the French authorities planned to grant it restructuring aid of EUR 31 million in 2007. Following the notification of this aid (...)

Launched in 2012, the process of modernising EU State aid policy (see, in this respect, the Communication of 8 May 2012 on Modernising EU State aid policy, COM(2012) 209 final) is nearing completion. Indeed, following the consolidation of the State aid Procedural Regulation through Regulation (...)

Does European state aid law preclude the granting of subsidies to associations for the creation and management of sports facilities? That is, in essence, the question which the Commission and the Court of First Instance have been called upon to answer in turn. Background In 2011, Hamr-Sport, (...)

The Spanish tax leasing scheme (hereinafter ’RELF’), already referred to in the previous issue of this newsletter (Competition No 2-2016, pp. 153-156, pp. 153-156), has been the subject of a number of studies.), has once again been at the centre of a decision by a court of the Union. It should (...)

Simet is an Italian company which provides passenger road transport services, including a network of regular interregional coach services between Calabria and other regions of Italy. These interregional routes were operated under annual concessions granted by the Italian authorities on the (...)

Combining questions relating to State aid procedures and merger control procedures, the dispute submitted to the Court of First Instance in the Secop v Commission case is not lacking in originality, especially as national commercial disputes form the background to it. Factual framework The (...)

Under Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 laying down health rules concerning animal by-products and derived products not intended for human consumption (OJ 2009 L 300, p. 1), animal by-products are divided into three categories (...)

Following the cases concerning the scheme for the participation of undertakings taxable in Spain in a foreign company (Autogrill Españav Commission(Case T-219/10, EU:T:2014:939 and Banco Santander and Santusa v Commission, T-399/11, EU:T:2014:938), it is once again a Spanish tax scheme, in this (...)

Because of the advantages of digital broadcasting over analogue broadcasting, in terms of quality and service, the switchover to digital broadcasting was encouraged by the Commission as early as 2002 and gradually implemented by Member States. It is in this context that the Spanish authorities (...)

In Bulgaria, a decree of 10 March 2000 provides that retirement pensions are paid to their beneficiaries by the National Social Security Institute through the country’s banks and the post offices of the national postal operator, Balgarski poshti, whose capital is 100% owned by the Bulgarian (...)

The restructuring of the BFA Group Severely affected by the international financial crisis, the banking group Banco Financiero y de Ahorro (BFA) and its subsidiary Bankia were subject to a restructuring plan in 2012. This plan was notified to the Commission by the Spanish authorities in (...)

Between 1995 and 1997 the Italian authorities granted reductions or exemptions from social security contributions to firms in the island territories of Venice and Chioggia. On 25 November 1999 the Commission, by Decision 2000/394/EC (OJ 2000 L 150, p. 50), considered that these measures (...)

More than 13 years after its adoption, the Commission’s decision on Italian local public services has again given rise to a Court ruling. In this latest judicial episode, the modalities of implementing the recovery of the aid in question were at the centre of the debates. It should be recalled (...)

In order to combat land speculation involving the sale of agricultural and forestry land in the context of the privatisation of State-owned land and buildings in the former East German Länder, German legislation makes the transfer of ownership of land subject to authorisation, subject to certain (...)

Regulation No 659/1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 TFEU (OJ 1999 L 83, p. 1) and Regulation No 994/98 on the application of Articles 107 and 108 TFEU to certain categories of horizontal State aid (OJ 1998 L 142, p. 1) have been substantially amended several (...)

A veritable sea serpent, the judicial saga of the litigation concerning State aid granted to the Société nationale Corse Méditerranée (SNCM), which has been on the registers of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Justice for a number of years, has just experienced a new (and final?) (...)

In two agreements, concluded in 2006, Bizkailur, a public company owned by the Vizcaya Provincial Council, and Habidite, a company owned by the Vizcaya Provincial Council, agreed on the terms and conditions for the latter to set up a plant for the manufacture of prefabricated building modules (...)

In view of the financial difficulties affecting the national airline Austrian Airlines, the Austrian authorities decided in 2008 to privatise that company by selling their majority shareholding. Following a call for expressions of interest, the offer to purchase Lufthansa was accepted by these (...)

The two orders adopted by the Court of First Instance on 12 May 2015 in the Woonlinie and Woonput cases constitute the final episode in the dispute concerning the aid scheme for ’wocos’, Netherlands non-profit-making organisations operating in the field of social housing. By a decision of 2009, (...)

In order to compensate for the high risks involved in granting credits in the agricultural sector, the Greek bank Agrotiki Trapeza tis Ellados (ATE), which was set up by a law of 1929, was granted special privileges by that law. Those privileges include, first, the right to register a mortgage (...)

Trib. EU, 25 March 2015, Belgium v. Commission, Case T-538/11, EU:T:2015:188 In order to deal with the mad cow disease crisis, Regulation No 999/2001 made testing for, inter alia, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) compulsory. From 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2005, the Belgian (...)

Trib. EU, 12 Feb. 2015, Luxembourg v Commission, Case T-258/14, EU:T:2015:22 As part of an investigation into tax rulings practices, the Commission, by decision of 24 March 2014, required Luxembourg, under Article 10(3) of Regulation No 659/1999, to provide it with a complete list of tax (...)

CJEU, 12 Feb 2015, Commission v. France, Case C-37/14, EU:C:2015:90 Between 1992 and 2002, France granted aid to French fruit and vegetable producers under ’contingency plans’, which were designed to prevent or, in the event of a crisis, mitigate the effects of temporary surpluses of supply over (...)

[ CJEU, 14 Jan. 2015, Eventech, aff. C-518/13, EU:C:2015:9-

CJEU, 22 Oct. 2014, Elcogás, aff. C-275/13, EU:C:2014:2314 The Spanish company Elcogás is the owner of a thermal power generation plant that produces electricity using coal gasification and other alternative fuels. Due to the additional costs generated by this technology, the company benefited (...)

Trib. EU, 16 Oct. 2014, Alro v. Commission, Case T-517/12, EU:T:2014:890, and Alpiq RomIndustries and Alpiq RomEnergie v Commission, Case T-129/13, EU:T:2014:895 In deciding on the actions brought against the Commission’s decision by the producer and traders in question, the Court of First (...)