The EU General Court affirms a Commission decision that France did not act as a private investor, and that Member States claiming private investor status have to prove it on the basis of objective and verifiable evidence (EDF)
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How a Private Investor Behaves: EDF v Commission*
A private investor carries out an assessment of the prospective profitability of a company before it invests in it. Ex post assessment is not sufficient. Evidence that the investment is likely to be profitable is not enough. The return must be high enough to satisfy a private investor in a similar situation (by compensating it for the risk it assumes).
Introduction
On 16 January 2018, the General Court ruled in case T-747/15, Electricité de France (EDF) v European Commission. EDF had appealed against Commission decision 2016/154 which had found that conversion of tax liability into share capital was incompatible State aid that had to be repaid. The Commission decision was reviewed in an article that was published here on 1 March 2016
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