The EU General Court rules on the concept of advantage in relation to the costs borne by competitors (Germany)

Compensation for the extra costs imposed by law* Introduction On 14 July 2016, the General Court rendered its judgment in case T 143/12, Germany v Commission. [1] The outcome was a victory for Germany as the General Court annulled Commission decision 2012/636 which had ordered Germany to recover incompatible aid that had been granted to Deutsche Post. In that decision, the Commission found that Deutsche Post had benefitted from several aid measures: a pension subsidy, public transfers and a public guarantee. The public guarantee was found to be existing aid and as such was not subject to recovery. The public transfers were considered to be compatible with the internal market. However, the pension subsidy was incompatible and had to be recovered. The pension subsidy aimed to offset