The EU Court of Justice holds that public service obligations must be properly defined via an official act or an administrative decision (Castilla-la-Mancha State aid’s)

Public Service Obligations Must be Properly Defined and Selectivity Must be Proven Neither the existence of market failure, nor national laws that designate a service to be in the general interest can replace an official act that assigns to one or more undertakings clearly defined public service obligations. Introduction The proper definition of public service obligations (PSOs) is an issue that arises with surprising regularity. It is surprising because numerous court judgments and Commission decisions have made it clear that when a public authority imposes a PSO it must do so via an act or administrative decision that compels a particular provider or providers to offer a service that is defined by the authority itself in terms such as price, quality, area, frequency, regularity,