Case C‑127/16 P - SNCF vs. European Commission/France/Mory

The Commission welcomes the judgment by the Court of Justice, which definitely upholds the Commission's 2012 decision concluding that France granted around €640 million of incompatible State aid to the SNCF courier subsidiary Sernam. The Court held that the way in which Sernam had been sold did not respect the conditions under the Commission decision, in particular because the sale included almost all of Sernam's liabilities. The Court also confirmed that the buyer, Financière Sernam, continued the economic activity of Sernam. This means that the buyer also benefitted from the State aid, and was thus liable to pay it back. On background: Following several complaints, the Commission had found in 2012 that France had not respected a previous Commission decision authorising restructuring aid to Sernam subject to certain conditions. According to these conditions, Sernam was either to withdraw from the road transport market, which was in overcapacity, or its assets (without liabilities) were to be sold in an open and transparent procedure to an independent player with no link to SNCF. This was necessary to reduce the distortion of competition created by the State subsidy.