European Competition Law provides a wide-ranging review of the European rules relating to competition: restrictive agreements, abuse of a dominant position, impact of intellectual property rights, procedure, merger control, State aid.

European Competition Law

To classify as an aid, the advantage has to favor “certain undertakings or the production of certain goods” . As opposed to a selective measure, a general measure “which benefits all undertakings in national territory, without distinction” , which is not limited to a sector or territory, or to a restricted category of undertakings, even to only one undertaking, applied in an uniform, automatic, indiscriminate manner and based on objective criteria to all undertakings , does not constitute a State aid. By contrast, an advantage which benefits one or more undertakings, unlike others in a comparable factual or legal situation, is identified as an aid, unless the differentiation is inherent in the nature or general economy of the collection system in question . The criterion for comparing the beneficiary with other operators in a comparable legal and factual situation having regard to the objective pursued by the measure is not relevant however when asessing an ad hoc measure concerning only one undertaking and aimed at modifying certain competititive constraints specific to it . In that case, it is necessary to check  in the light of the objective pursued by the general tax scheme in question, if the measure introduces, between operators in a comparable legal and factual situation, a differentiation which is not justified by the nature and general scheme of that system . Finally, the condition relative to selectivity can only be assessed in the context of a single Member State and only results from an analysis of the difference in treatment between the undertakings or productions of that State alone .

Case C-211/15 P Orange, Judgment of 26 October 2016, LawLex201600001741JBJ: the reform of the pensions of civil servants working for the incumbent telecoms operator in France which was not intended to prevent the operator from being subject to a charge which, in a normal situation, should not be borne by its budget, constitutes a selective economic avantage insofar as the measure was intended to modify only certain competitive constraints which were specific to the undertaking.  

Case C-143/99 Adria-Wien Pipeline and 0Wietersdorfer & Peggauer Zementwerke [2001] ECR I-8365, LawLex200500004865JBJ, at pt. 35.

Commission Decision No 2000/128/EC of 11 May 1999, Aid granted by Italy to promote employment, LawLex200500004714JBJ.

Case C-374/17 Finanzamt B c. A-Brauerei, Bundesministerium der Finanzen, Judgment of 19 December 2018, LawLex201900002056JBJ: a tax advantage which consists in exempting from real property transfer tax the transfer of ownership of a property which occurred because of a restructuring procedure involving only companies of the same group, linked by a shareholding of at least 95% during a minimum, uninterrupted period of five years prior to that procedure and of five years thereafter, does not constitute a State aid even though it introduces a distinction between undertakings which are, in the light of the objective pursued by the legal system at issue, in comparable factual and legal situations, that distinction being justified since it seeks to avoid double taxation and stems, to that extent, from the nature and general scheme of the system of which it forms part.

Case T-135/12 France v Commission, Judgment of 26 February 2015, not availble in English and Case T-385/12 Orange Judgment of 26 February 2015, LawLex202000002012JBJ.

Case T-315/15 Greece v Commission, Judgment of 13 December 2017, LawLex202500006749JBJ.

Case T-538/11 Belgium v Commission, Judgment of 25 March 2015, LawLex201700001319JBJ,  unlike the condition relating to the effect on trade between Member States, which consists in examining whether the undertakings or the production of goods in one Member State are placed at an advantage by comparison with undertakings or the production of goods in other Member States.

387. Concept