Latest Judgments

Covering the Court of Justice of the EU as well as the EFTA Court, this section presents all of the latest judgments in the State aid legal field.

Case C-89/14 A2A SpA v Agenzia delle Entrate

Source: Curia website, curia.europa.eu , 26.03.2015

The AG proposed that the court should find that Art 14 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty (now Article 108 TFEU), articles, 9,11, and 13 of the Commission Regulation (EC) No 794/2004 of 21 April 2004 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty and the general principles of EU law must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation, which provides that interest in regard to state aid recovery following a Commission decision [reported 7 June 2002] is determined by applying the method of compound interest.

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Case C-63/14 - Commission v France

Source: Curia website, curia.europa.eu , 26.03.2015

The AG proposed that the Court should rule in favour of the European Commission as France has failed to fulfil its obligations resulting from Art. 288 TFEU and Art. 3,4, and 5 of the Commission Decision of 2 May 2013 on State aid SA.22843 (2012/C) (ex 2012/NN).

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Case T-538/11 - Belgium v Commission

Source: Curia website, curia.europa.eu , 25.03.2015

The General Court dismissed the action to annul the Commission Decision of 27 July 2011 concerning the State aid for financing screening of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) in bovine animals implemented by Belgium (State aid C 44/08 (ex NN 45/04)).

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Case C‑672/13 - OTP Bank Nyrt v Magyar Allam, Magyar Allamkincstar

Source: Curia website, curia.europa.eu , 19.03.2015

The CJEU responds to the preliminary ruling questions that 1) the State guarantee granted exclusively to credit institutions prima facie constitute ‘State aid’. It is for the referring court to ascertain more specifically the selective nature of such a guarantee by determining, in particular, whether, following the amendment of the Decree of 2001 which is supposed to have taken place in 2008, that guarantee may be granted to economic operators other than credit institutions and, in the affirmative, whether that fact may call into question the selective nature of that guarantee; 2) if the referring court classifies the State guarantee at issue in the main proceedings as ‘State aid’ within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU, such a guarantee must be regarded as new aid and is, [...]

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Case T-89/09 - Pollmeier Massivholz GmbH and Co. KG v European Commission

Source: Curia website, curia.europa.eu , 17.03.2015

The General Court annuls the Commission Decision C(2008) 6017 final of 21 October 2008, State Aid N 512/2007 – Germany, Abalon Hardwood Hessen GmbH insofar as it concluded that the public guarantees given by Hessen did not constitute State aid and rejects the remainder of the appeal.

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AG Opinion in Case C‑39/14 - Bodenverwertungs- und -verwaltungs GmbH (BVVG), Thomas Erbs, Ursula Erbs v Landkreis Jerichower Land

Source: Curia website, curia.europa.eu , 17.03.2015

AG Cruz Villalon proposes that Article 107 TFEU should be interpreted to mean that a rule of national law such as that in the present case which, with the purpose of improving agricultural structures, prohibits a body of the State from selling in the context of a procurement an agricultural land to the highest bidder where the best bid is disproportionate to the value of the land can only escape a categorisation as state aid if that value is as close as possible to the market value, which implies that this estimation takes into account the prices proposed in the course of the procurement.

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Case C-667/13 - Estado português v Banco Privado Português SA and Massa Insolvente do Banco Privado Português SA

Source: Curia website, curia.europa.eu , 05.03.2015

The CJEU finds the preliminary ruling questions referred by the Tribunal do Comércio de Lisboa (Portugal) have disclosed nothing capable of affecting the validity of Commission Decision 2011/346/EU of 20 July 2010 on the State aid C 33/09 (ex NN 57/09, CP 191/09) implemented by Portugal in the form of a State guarantee to BPP.