The EU Court of Justice renders preliminary ruling on the notion of “linked enterprises” in relation to a dispute on the calculation of the amount of an investment subsidy (HaTeFo)

SMEs Linked through Natural Persons Two or more enterprises may constitute a single undertaking when their owners and/or managers are related in a way that they can act jointly to exercise influence over the decision of those enterprises. Introduction On 27 February 2014, the Court of Justice rendered a judgment on the notion of “linked enterprises” following a request for preliminary ruling from a German court [1] The request concerned case HaTeFo GmbH v Finanzamt Haldensleben, C‑110/13, which arose from a dispute on the calculation of the amount of an investment subsidy. Indeed, for aid granting authorities one of the most difficult tasks in preventing aid applicants from benefiting from SME bonuses is to determine whether personal bonds between apparently distinct enterprises