Long-term energy purchase agreements: The General Court approves the Commission’s analysis of Hungarian energy purchase agreements using the market economy private investor (Budapesti Erőmű)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. Two lessons emerge from the judgment delivered today, 13 February 2012, by the Court of First Instance of the European Union in the Budapesti State aid case Erőmű Zrt v Commission (Joined Cases T-80/06 and T-182/09) concerning the existence of State aid in long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) concluded between the electricity producer Budapesti Erőmű Zrt, secondarily Hungarian subsidiary of EdF, and the Hungarian state-owned company MVM, the purchaser of the said electricity. It should be recalled that in this case the Commission had concluded that the PPAs contained State aid incompatible with the common market,