To this journal the long-awaited publication of the report and the communication on socalled services of general economic interest on 23 March 2011 is of somewhat historical significance. When this Quarterly was created in early 2002, it entered its first runway with a discussion of the late Ferring judgment. Both the battlegrounds on which various Advocate Generals of the European Court of Justice fought for the “correct” notion of an aid in the specific context of offsetting costs linked t...

I. Introduction On 12 October 2010, the European Commission decided that French subsidies granted to young online music consumers residing in France – and thereby favouring the music recording industry, enshrined together with the three-strike copyright policy – were in line with Article 107(3)(c) TFEU.1 This article will describe the French subsidy measure and situate it in its context. Afterwards, we will try to examine the accuracy of the measure as a means of fighting illegal file sharin...

I. Introduction The airline industry is by its very nature highly exposed to the volatility of the market. Lower barriers to entry for new airlines together with pricing freedom arising from the deregulation of the air transport market have produced far greater competition than before deregulation. Fares have dropped significantly with low cost carriers often taking market share by offering highly reduced rates that full service airlines struggle to match. This is a major constraint on profitabi...

I. Introduction On 23 March 2011 the Commission adopted a Communication on the reform of the State aid rules on services of general economic interest (SGEI)1 and made public DG Competition’s long-expected Report2 on the application of the so-called Altmark package regarding compensations for SGEI. The Altmark package had been adopted on 28 November 2005 in order to clarify how, taking into account the Altmark judgment3, the Commission would assess the compatibility of public service compensati...

I. Introduction Article 345 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union requires neutrality in the treatment of public and private undertakings and in the treatment of public and private investors. One of the implications of this provision is that public authorities are at liberty to invest in undertakings. Public authorities may extend loans, inject capital, subscribe to shares or purchase outright any company. However, Article 107(1) TFEU prohibits in principle the granting of State...

I. Introduction State aid control in public passenger transport has a long and complicated history. Having been economically viable in Europe until the 1950s, most public transport became dependent on public subsidies following the rapid increase in private car ownership in the 1960s. Initially, there was little potential for distortion of competition and impact on trade, as most public passenger transport was operated by national, regional or local monopolies. This changed in the early 1990s, w...

In a series of recent judgments concerning unlawful State aid, the Court has emphasized that national courts may be required to uphold claims for compensation for damage caused by reason of the unlawful nature of the aid. Nevertheless, recent studies show that so far there have been no cases in which competitors have actually been awarded damages. The main obstacle to a successful action for damages seems to be the requirement to prove causation and/or to quantify the loss suffered. Arguably, th...

I. Introduction On April 2, 2009, the Court of Justice (First Chamber) (“ECJ”) handed down its decision in Case C-431/07 P Bouygues SA, Bouygues Télécom SA v Commission.1 The ECJ’s ruling upheld the decision of the European Commission (the “Commission”) and the ruling of the General Court (“GC,” at the time, the Court of First Instance) in dismissing a claim by the French module network operator Bouygues Télécom (“Bouygues”) that its competitors, Societe Francaise du Radiot...

I. Introduction On October 14, 2010, the Court of Justice dismissed an appeal brought by two Italian companies, Nuova Agricast and Cofra against a judgment of the General Court in Joined Cases T-362/05 and T- 363/05. The General Court had rejected Nuova Agricast and Cofra’s damage claim in respect of losses allegedly suffered as a result of the Commission’s decision of July 12, 2000 not to raise objections against an Italian State aid scheme for investment in disadvantaged regions of Italy, ...

On 18 November 2010, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment that clarifies the notion of a “decision” 1 which is intended to produce legal effects and therefore constitutes an act open to challenge for the purposes of ex-Article 230 EC (= Article 263 TFEU). Furthermore, it pointed out that, under the Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC Treaty2 (“Regulation No 659/1999”)3, the Com...

I. Introduction In Italian Republic v Commission1 the selective nature of an aid scheme implemented by the Italian authorities in favour of newly listed companies was at issue. The Commission declared the aid scheme as incompatible with the common market which was confirmed by the CFI in conformity with the principles laid down in joined Cases T-92/00 and T-103/00 Diputación Foral de Álava and Others v Commission. Further, in Italian Republic v Commission the CFI repeated many well-established...

I. Introduction and Background The General Court’s judgment in this case lends further support to the Commission in its ongoing efforts towards increasing the importance of conducting a thorough analysis of the incentive effect in State-aid compatibility assessments. This development reflects the State Aid Action Plan’s call for a ‘more refined economic approach’, which has been heeded in the modernisation of several horizontal- aid guidelines and Commission decisions taken in recent yea...

I. Introduction The facts of the case are fairly straightforward. The Commission received a number of complaints concerning alleged State aid granted to Ryanair. Following investigations, the Commission published summaries of decisions in the Official Journal. Ryanair requested, by separate letters for each investigation, public access to the files concerned. The Commission, by separate letter for each investigation concerned, provided the applicant with the decisions initiating a formal investi...