General exemption by category: The Court of Justice of the European Union confirms that an undertaking under collective insolvency proceedings on the date on which it was granted aid is not covered by the general block exemption Regulation, even if these proceedings were opened at the request of this undertaking (Nerea)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. Firms in difficulty are excluded from the scope of the General Block Exemption Regulation, just as they are generally excluded from the scope of the Guidelines on the compatibility of aid with the internal market. They are normally covered only by the rescue and restructuring aid guidelines. Indeed, a company in difficulty is not considered to be an appropriate vehicle for pursuing general interest objectives that may justify the compatibility of aid with the internal market. The definition of firms in difficulty is not quite the same in the latter guidelines and in the general block exemption regulation, the latter retaining a simplified definition for