The European Commission welcomes today's judgment by the EU Court of Justice fully upholding two Commission decisions of October 2009 and January 2011, regarding the tax amortisation of financial goodwill for foreign shareholding acquisitions in Spain. In doing so, the Court set aside an earlier ruling by the General Court from November 2014. The Commission in its decisions had concluded that, by allowing companies to deduct the financial goodwill arising from shareholdings in foreign companies from their corporate tax base, the Spanish measure gave those companies a selective advantage over their competitors in breach of EU state aid rules. The Court of Justice referred the cases back to the General Court for a re-assessment in light of today's judgment. As a result of the judgment, the Commission decisions of October 2009 and January 2011 are reinstated, including Spain's obligation to recover the aid granted under the measure.
Press release

The Court of Justice ruled on the Commission' appeal against an earlier General Court ruling that had annulled a Commission decision of 2012. The 2012 decision had extended the scope of a state aid investigation into public measures in favour of Lübeck airport and airlines flying from it. Lübeck airport brought an action for annulment against the 2012 extension decision. The General Court annulled the decision with regard to one measure: Lübeck airport's 2006 schedule of airport charges. The 2012 decision had found that the schedule selectively favoured airlines flying from Lübeck airport over competing airlines flying from other nearby airports, such as Hamburg. The General Court held that the schedule was not selective because it was open to all airlines willing to fly from Lübeck airport. The Court of Justice has now confirmed the General Court's findings.

The Court of Justice rules on the Commission's appeal against an earlier General Court ruling that had annulled a Commission decision of July 2012 regarding the Irish air travel tax. In Ireland, airline operators were liable to pay Air Travel Tax in respect of every departure of a passenger. Until March 2011, two tax rates applied: €2 for passengers flying up to 300 km from Dublin, and €10 for all other passengers. In its decision the Commission concluded that the lower tax rate conferred an undue advantage on its beneficiaries, in breach of EU State aid rules. The Commission found that the aid to be recovered amounts to the difference between the lower and the standard air travel rate and ordered Ireland to recover the difference of €8 per passenger from beneficiary airlines. Today's judgment confirms these findings by the Commission. The Court held, in particular, that where illegal State aid takes the form of a tax relief, the advantage received by the beneficiary amounts to the difference between the standard tax rate and the lower rate. This illegal advantage needs to be paid back in full. This is because the lower tax rate constitutes an economic advantage, which distorts competition on the air transport market.

The Court of Justice ruled on appeals by several Greek casinos against an earlier General Court ruling of 2015 that had upheld a Commission decision of October 2012. The Commission's 2012 decision had found that the exclusive rights to operate 13 games of chance and the exclusive licence to operate 35 000 Video Lottery Terminals, granted by the Greek authorities to the Greek gambling operator OPAP, involved no state aid within the meaning of the EU rules. The Court dismissed the appeals and confirmed the Commission's findings.

The Court of Justice ruled on preliminary questions referred by the Belgian Constitutional Court, asking, among others, whether the Commission was right to conclude in a 2014 decision that a Belgian guarantee scheme for shareholders of financial cooperatives was incompatible with EU state aid rules. The Commission's 2014 decision found, in particular, that the public guarantee makes the financial cooperatives that benefit from it more attractive for investors as compared to their competitors, who have to operate without such a guarantee. The guarantee thus conferred a selective advantage to the Belgian financial cooperative ARCO, the only beneficiary of the scheme, who has to pay back the undue advantage it received. The Court has now confirmed the Commission's findings that the guarantee scheme entailed illegal state aid.

The General Court gave two judgments concerning two Commission decisions of 2008 and 2009 regarding access to lignite in Greece. The two decisions found that by granting the state owned power supplier Public Power Corporation (DEI), privileged access to lignite Greece had maintained or reinforced DEI's dominant position and created an inequality of opportunity between competitors. This had restricted competition in breach of Article 106 TFEU read in conjunction with Article 102 TFEU.
Commission's 2009 decision
Commission's 2008 decision

The General Court ruled on actions for annulment of a Commission decision of 2014 fining several companies for their participation in a cartel in the market for smart card chips. Infineon and Philips brought actions for annulment of that decision before the General Court. Today, the Court has dismissed the actions and entirely upheld the Commission's findings and the fines imposed on Infineon and Philips in 2014. The Court confirmed the Commission's approach on information exchanges through networks of bilateral contacts where the involvement of each company may vary. The Court held in particular that the Commission was correct to conclude that these exchanges of information on price setting factors are anticompetitive by their very nature.
Case T-762/14 Philips
Case T-758/14 Infineon
Commission's 2014 decision

The General Court rules on two actions for annulment of a Commission 2014 decision ordering Spain to recover incompatible state aid from Telecom CLM and Abertis (now Cellnex Telecom). In particular, the 2014 decision had found that the public financing for digital terrestrial television (DTT) infrastructure in Castille-La Manche selectively favoured the DTT platforms, in breach of the principle of technological neutrality. Spain and Abertis Telecom had brought actions before the General Court. The Court has now dismissed the actions and entirely upheld the Commission's 2014 decision.
Case T-808/14 Spain
Case T-37/15 Albertis Telecom
Commission's 2014 decision

The General Court ruled on Tompla/Printeos' action for annulment of the fine the Commission had imposed on the company for its participation in a cartel in the market for envelopes. The Court annulled Tompla/Printeos' fine.
Commission's envelope cartel decision

29/04/2021. The Commission takes note of today’s judgment by the Court of Justice of the EU declaring that Spain failed to implement the 2014 Commission Decision ordering Spain to recover unlawful and incompatible State aid granted to Telecom Castilla-La Mancha and Cellnex Telecom. The Commission will continue to monitor the full implementation of the recovery procedure.
The judgment provides useful guidance on how Spain shall continue and achieve the recovery procedure to fully implement of the Commission Decision.

29/04/2021. The Commission takes note of today’s judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which fully upheld the 2019 ruling by the General Court in this case. In 2019, the General Court had upheld a 2013 Commission decision approving Lithuanian aid for the construction and operation of a liquefied natural gas terminal in the port of Klaipėda.
Today’s judgment fully confirms the Commission’s decision and its assessment on the necessity and proportionality of the aid as required by Article 107(3) TFEU, the SGEI framework and public procurement rules.

29/04/2021. The Commission takes note of the judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union EU, which confirms the judgment of the General Court of 24 September 2019 and dismisses the appeal lodged by Fortischem. The judgment concerns the Commission’s 2014 decision in relation to the State aid provided to the Slovak chemical company NCHZ.
The Court fully confirmed the Commission’s in-depth analysis of the existence of aid as well as its finding of economic continuity between NCHZ and Fortischem.