Tax: The French Council of State rules that a tax entirely attributed to a fund is an integral part of an aid measure and has to be restituted since it has been put into effect in violation of Art. 88.3 EC (Auchan)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. – EC, 21 December 2006, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry v. Auchan France, No. 288562 The Conseil d'État was seized of a dispute concerning the refund of the tax on certain advertising expenditure instituted by the 1998 Finance Act and allocated entirely to the fund for the modernisation of the daily political and general information press. It considers that, since that tax forms an integral part of the aid to press undertakings, it should have been notified to the Commission before being put into effect and that, failing that, its implementation is unlawful by infringement of the last sentence of Article 88(3) EC. The Minister is therefore