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

According to Article 108(1) TFEU, existing systems of aid are subject to constant review by the Commission, which may propose to the Member States any appropriate measures required by the progressive development or by the functioning of the internal market. The overriding need to maintain undistorted competition in the sector cannot justify the non-compliance by the Commission with the procedure p …

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According to Article 108(1) TFEU, existing systems of aid are subject to constant review by the Commission, which may propose to the Member States any appropriate measures required by the progressive development or by the functioning of the internal market. The overriding need to maintain undistorted competition in the sector cannot justify the non-compliance by the Commission with the procedure provided for in Article 108(1) TFEU .

The review takes place in cooperation with the Member State which provides the Commission with all necessary information for the review (Regulation No 2015/1589, Article 21) . Where the Commission considers that an existing aid scheme is not, or is no longer, compatible with the internal market, it informs the State concerned thereof, and that State must submit its comments within one month. Where the Commission, in light of those comments, concludes that the scheme in question is not or is no long compatible with the internal market, it issues a recommendation to the Member State proposing, inter alia, to make substantive amendment of the aid scheme in question, or to introduce a number of procedural requirements, or to abolish the aid scheme (Regulation No 2015/1589, Article 22). However, the failure to comply with a condition imposed when the aid scheme was approved does not lead, ipso facto, to the “reclassification” of the measure as new aid enabling it to be declared unlawful ab initio and subject to a decision ordering its recovery, as would be the case if it were unlawfully implemented rather than previously authorized aid .  The duration of a recommendation is necessarily limited, as the Commission must keep the possibility to review the utility and scope of the measure to take account of the market development . The Member State which accepts the measures proposed by the Commission, undertakes to implement them. Where the Member State refuses the appropriate measures, the Commission initiates the formal preliminary investigation procedure (Règl. 2015/1589, art. 23). If the appropriate measures proposed by the Commission to the Member States under Article 108(1) TFEU are binding such Member States only if they have consented to them, they may however be used as assessment framework when the Commission reviews the notified aid . The Commission may, ultimately, adopt a decision finding an aid incompatible. In accordance with the principle of legal certainty, such a decision imposing the elimination or modification of the existing aid will be valid only as to the future .

Case C-292/95 Spain v Commission [1997] ECR I-1931, LawLex200500005096JBJ.

A Member State cannot claim internal situations such as repeated changes at the level of staff organization and a lack of human resources of the competent Ministry to justify the non-compliance with its obligation to submit to the Commission, within the fixed time-periods, the reports enabling a constant review of the existing aid schemes: Case C-69/05 Commission v Luxembourg [2006] ECR I-7.

Case T-527/13 Italy v Commission, Judgment of 24 June 2015, LawLex201700000995JBJ.

Case C-135/93 Spain v Commission [1995] ECR I-1651, LawLex200500005110JBJ.

Case T-132/96 Freistaat Sachsen and others v Commission [1999] ECR II-3663, LawLex200500005160JBJ.

Case T-298/97 Alzetta and others v Commission [2000] ECR II-2319, LawLex200500005194JBJ.

European Competition Law

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