Skip to content
  • «
  • 1
  • »

The search returned 4 results.

The Awarding of Royal Warrants: journal article

A State Aid Perspective on a Centuries-old National Practice

Marie-Louise Holle, Grith Skovgaard Ølykke

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 22 (2023), Issue 1, Page 55 - 68

This article explores the tradition of awarding of royal warrants in monarchies in the EU. A royal warrant is an entitlement for an undertaking to utilise the fact that it is supplying a royal court with goods or services in its marketing, as a quality assurance. To determine the legality of awarding royal warrants under EU law, it is examined whether the EU State aid rules apply. To determine whether this is the case, it is decisive whether the monarch is the ‘State’ for the purpose of Article 107(1) TFEU. Therefore, EU law and national public law is analysed. The analysis shows that legal analysis of royal warrants rests on the public/private divide. It is analysed how the various national legal conceptualisations of the monarch fits in the EU concept of State, encompassing all entities which may reasonably be said to act on behalf or under influence of the State. No hard conclusion can be drawn, but it is found that the monarch’s resources are State resources and that the awarding of royal warrants arguably must be considered as imputable to the State. Further, royal warrants confer an economic advantage on beneficiaries, and the monarch does not (formally) receive any (market-like) remuneration. Thus, it is concluded that the award of a royal warrant grants State aid to the benefitting undertaking. Keywords: concept of State; royal warrants; monarch; State resources; economic advantage


The Relationship between Economic Advantage and the Compatibility Assessment in Decisions Not to Raise Objections · Case T-578/17 a&o hostel and hotel Berlin GmbH v Commission (Jugendherberge Berlin) · Annotation by Christopher McMahon journal article

Annotation on the Judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber) of 20 June 2021 in Case T-578/17 a&o hostel and hotel Berlin GmbH v Commission (Jugendherberge Berlin)

Christopher McMahon

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 20 (2021), Issue 3, Page 427 - 433

A recent decision of the General Court to annul the Commission’s decision not to raise objections to individual aid for the development of a youth hostel raises important questions about the burden that the Commission must bear in establishing that there are no serious doubts as to the compatibility of the contested measures with the internal market. The case related to a contract between the regional government of Berlin and a non-profit organisation allowing the latter to occupy a site rent-free provided that it developed and operated a youth hostel there. A competing provider of low-cost tourist accommodation that made a complaint regarding the contract applied for the annulment of the Commission’s decision not to raise objections after a preliminary assessment. After dismissing a number of speculative arguments on the admissibility of the action, the General Court annulled the decision due to the Commission’s failure to rule out the existence of serious doubts as to compatibility with the internal market. The decision will require the Commission to tread carefully in refusing to rule on the existence of aid as part of the preliminary assessment, particularly where this relates to uncertainty on the condition of economic advantage. This may limit the ability of the Commission to conserve resources by refraining from identifying and quantifying any economic advantage.


Economic vs Non-Economic: journal article

A Long and Winding Road

Andreas Bartosch

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 20 (2021), Issue 4, Page 507 - 511

A recent line of jurisprudence as to the dichotomy of what is an economic versus a non –economic activity has, bizarrely so, gone completely unnoticed by commentators. This article seizes the opportunity to present the author´s view why, whilst formally repeating an all-too-well-known line of jurisprudence, the way the Courts have carried out their analysis in fact brings quite some degree of common sense when looking at this very analysis. Keywords: jurisprudence; economic advantage; State aid conditions; State control


  • «
  • 1
  • »