Concept of State aid : The Court of Justice of the European Union considers that a rule of national law which prohibits an emanation of the State from selling agricultural land to the highest bidder in a public call for tenders, where the competent local authority considers that the highest bid is grossly disproportionate to the estimated value of that land, cannot be classified as State aid (BVVG)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. 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 exceptions. Such authorisation may be refused, in particular, if the consideration is grossly disproportionate to the value of the land. In practice, according to German case-law, a large disproportion exists where the sale price exceeds the agricultural market value of the land by more than 50%. Such was the case with the sale by the BVVG, the German body