The Italian Council of State rules that the EU Commission’s decision to declare a provision of State aid legal cannot have a retroactive effect (Impresa Renato Murgia)

On 15 July 2019, the Council of State delivered Decision No. 4962 in which it rejected the appeal brought by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia against a decision of the Regional Administrative Court of Sardinia (“TAR Sardinia”), which had upheld the annulment action brought by Re. Mu. S.r.l. (“ReMu”). Background & facts of the case In 1998, the Sardinia Regional Councillor for Labour issued a decree based on Regional Law 28/1984 in which it accorded EUR 3,391,766,718 in aid to Centralbeton S.r.l., an undertaking operating in the production and sale of aggregates for concrete. ReMu, a competitor of Centralbeton S.r.l., challenged the decree before TAR