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

Article 263 TFEU lists five grounds for annulment:
- lack of competence and infringement of an essential procedural requirement deal with the external legality of the decision ;
- infringement of a rule of law, infringement of the Treaty and misuse of powers make it possible to review the internal legality.
The court cannot however raise a plea of its own motion based on an infringement of Article …

Powers of the EU Court

Article 263 TFEU lists five grounds for annulment:

- lack of competence and infringement of an essential procedural requirement deal with the external legality of the decision ;

- infringement of a rule of law, infringement of the Treaty and misuse of powers make it possible to review the internal legality.

The court cannot however raise a plea of its own motion based on an infringement of Article 107(1) TFEU because of the non-attributability of the measure in question to a Member State, where that plea goes to the substantive legality of the contested decision .

The broad discretion that the Commission has for the review of State aid , the exercise of which involves economic and social assessments which must be made in an EU context, limits the review of the court which can only make a limited review . By contrast, the objective nature of the classification as new or existing aid, within the meaning of Article 107(1), implies a maximum review by the court . The Commission's discretion is limited, in this case, to the existence of particular circumstances due, inter alia, to the complex nature of the State intervention  or serious difficulties .

However, a judgment which annuls in its entirety a decision to recover an unlawful aid due to inadequate statement of reasons on the present-day amount of the aid to be recovered, is liable to be null and void where this question does not affect the finding that the aid is incompatible and can be recovered, Case C-295/07 P Département du Loiret v Commission [2008] ECR I-9363, LawLex200900000249JBJ.

Case C-272/12 P Commission v Ireland, Judgment of 10 December 2013, LawLex201300001781JBJ.

Case T-135/12 France v Commission, Judgment of 26 February 2015, not available in English and Case T-385/12 Orange, Judgment of 26 February 2015: for the application of Article 107(3)(c) TFEU, the Commission enjoys a wide discretionary power, the exercise of which requires complex economic and social assessments which must be made in the context of the EU, as the judicial review of the exercise of this power of assessment is limited to ensuring compliance with the rules of procedure and reasoned decisions, as well as,the material accuracy of the findings, the absence of any error of law, the manifest error of assessment of the facts or misuse of power.

Case 310/85 Deufil v Commission [1987] ECR 901, LawLex200500004459JBJ; Case C-169/95 Spain v Commission [1997] ECR I-135, LawLex200500005093JBJ; Case T-380/94 AIUFASS and AKT v Commission [1996] ECR II-2169, LawLex200500005150JBJ; Case T-371/94 British Airways and others and British Midland Airways v Commission [1998] ECR II-2405, LawLex200500005198JBJ; Case T-155/98 SIDE v Commission [2002] ECR II-1179, LawLex200500004883JBJ; the Commission must however comply with its guidelines; Case T-349/03 Corsica Ferries France v Commission [2005] ECR II-2197, LawLex200800000234JBJ; Case T-11/07 Frucona KoŠice a.s., Judgment of 7 December 2010, LawLex201100000199JBJ clarifying that the the Commission is not required to adduce “objective economic evidence” in support of the Commission's findings in relation to the test of a private creditor in a market economy; Case C-194/09 P Alcoa Trasformazioni Srl, Judgment of 21 July 2011, LawLex201200000120JBJ, on the validity of the review of the General Court's in an action against the decision to open the formal investigation procedure, concerning a measure with the same tariff as that examined in an earlier decision, insofar as the Court had previously found that they were distinct measures; Case C-414/15 P Stichting Woonlinie, Judgment of 15 March 2017, LawLex201700000514JBJ: the General Court cannot however find that its power of review does not extend to the Commission's examination of the aid scheme before the commitments given by the authorities of a Member State, without committing an error of law, insofar as the conclusion that the existing aid scheme is incompatible with the internal market and the proposal of appropriate measures that that conclusion necessarily entails produces, once the Commission has recorded the acceptance of those measures by the Member State concerned, the same legal effects as those of a finding pursuant to Article 108(2) TFEU  as regards that Member State; Case T-34/21 Ryanair DAC and Condor Flugdienst GmbH, Judgment of 10 May 2023, LawLex202300006524JBJ, while the reviewof the General Court is limited as regards the complex economic and social assessments made by the Commission, that review is comprehensive as regards  the evaluations made by the Commission which do not involve such assessments or as regards questions of a strictly legal nature; Case C-547/23 P, 16 January 2025, not available in English, which recalls that the assessment of facts and evidence does not constitute a question of law subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice in the context of an appeal, subject to the case of misinterpretation, which must be clearly apparent from the documents in the file, without it being necessary to carry out a new assessment of the facts and evidence.

Case T-67/94 Ladbroke Racing v Commission [1998] ECR II-1, LawLex200500005200JBJ; Case C-295/97 Piaggio [1999] ECR I-3735, LawLex200500005302JBJ; Case C-83/98 P France v Ladbroke Racing and Commission [2000] ECR I-3271, LawLex200500005308JBJ; Case C-487/06 P British Aggregates v Commission [2008] ECR I-10505, LawLex200900000248JBJ.

See for an example, on the issue of the complex economic appraisal of the private investor test: Case T-126/96 BFM v Commission [1998] ECR II-3437, LawLex200500005235JBJ; Case T-234/95 DSG v Commission [2000] ECR II-2603, LawLex200500005247JBJ.

In effect, at that stage, the classification as aid is only provisional, Case T-269/99 Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa and others v Commission [2002] ECR II-4217, LawLex200500004955JBJ; Case T-346/99 Diputación Foral de Álava and others v Commission [2002] ECR II-4259, LawLex200500005046JBJ.

European Competition Law

447. Powers of the EU Court

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

447. Powers of the EU Court

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise