Illegal State aid: The General Court estimates that the financed measures by the State and professionals’ voluntary contribution can be State aides and confirms the Commission’s decision regarding the French contingency plans paid to certain agricultural sectors between 1992- 2002 (affaire du secteur des fruits et légumes)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. For the record, the Commission, finding that the aid was unlawful, had, by Decision C 29/2005 of 28 January 2009, declared it incompatible with the common market and ordered France to recover it. The main question raised by this case concerns whether measures financed both by State contributions and by voluntary contributions from professionals in a sector could constitute State aid. Following the Commission, the Court of First Instance therefore answered the question in the affirmative in the three cases before it: Case T-139/09 (France v Commission), Case T-243/09 (Fédération de l'organisation économique fruits et légumes (Fedecom) v Commission) and Case