The EU Court of Justice rules that the Commission must re-examine whether the sale of a motorsports association entails a grant of State Aid (Ja zum Nürburgring / NeXovation)

The Commission must re-examine whether the sale of the Nürburgring in 2014 entailed a grant of State aid* In the same year, it wrongly ruled out the presence of doubts as to the possible existence of an advantage conferred on the buyer and decided not to open a formal investigation procedure On appeal by Ja zum Nürburgring eV, a German motorsport association for the reinstatement and promotion of a race track at the Nürburgring, and NeXovation, a company established in the United States whose bid for the Nürburgring complex (‘the Nürburgring’) was rejected during the tender process, the Court of Justice finds that the Commission wrongly decided, in 2014, that the sale of the Nürburgring assets to the German company Capricorn Nürburgring Besitzgesellschaft GmbH at the end of the tender