I. Introduction Ten years have passed since 2003,when the firstmeasure in support of the roll-out of a broadband networkwere assessed under the EU State aid rules, and approved with direct application of Article 107(3)(c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).1 Since then, the European Commission has adoptedmore than 125 decisions in this sector (as of October 2013) and has scrutinised projects involving a total of 13 billion o