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Valencia Club de Fútbol: Every Advantage Has Its Disadvantage (and Vice Versa) · Case T-732/16 Valencia Club de Fútbol · Annotation by Doortje Ninck Blok and Gerard van der Wal journal article

Annotation on the Judgment of the EU General Court (Fourth Chamber) of 12 March 2020 in Case T-732/16 Valencia Club de Fútbol

Doortje Ninck Blok, Gerard van der Wal

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 20 (2021), Issue 2, Page 284 - 291

The General Court handed down a judgement in 2020 in which it annulled the Commission’s Decision regarding State aid granted to Valencia Club de Fútbol through a €75 million (regional) government guarantee. The Commission qualified the guarantee granted by a financial entity under the supervision of the Regional Government of Valencia, intended to cover the bank loans to Fundación Valencia to enable Fundación Valencia to acquire shares in Valencia Club de Fútbol (the beneficiary according to the Commission and General Court), as unlawful state aid in the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU. This annotation elaborates on two pleas brought forward by Valencia Club de Fútbol: (i) manifest errors of assessment in the characterisation of an advantage and (ii) manifest errors of assessment when calculating the amount of aid. The General Court considered that the Commission made an error of assessment when applying the market economy operator principle, where the Commission did not carry out an overall assessment. Furthermore, the Commission did not sufficiently support the finding that there was no market price for a similar non-guaranteed loan. In their conclusion, the annotators address the application of the Guarantee Notice by the Commission.


The Application of the Market Economy Operator Principle in the Aviation Sector journal article

Nicole Robins, Laura Puglisi

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 20 (2021), Issue 1, Page 74 - 86

Economic and financial analysis plays an increasing role in State aid assessments. It is often used to assess whether one of the criteria for State aid to exist is met − namely, whether the State’s intervention confers an economic advantage − as well as specific aspects of whether any aid is compatible with the relevant State aid rules. To determine whether a public measure confers an economic advantage on the beneficiary, the market economy operator principle (MEOP) test is often applied. The rationale behind the test is to assess whether the State is acting in the manner of a private investor. In the aviation sector, the MEOP is applied at various levels, ranging from funding provided by the State to airport owners or operators, to the relationship between publicly owned airports (or those that have received State aid) and airlines. This article provides an overview of the different levels at which the MEOP test is applied in the aviation sector, and its underlying economic and financial principles. Throughout the article, examples are provided to demonstrate how the MEOP test has been applied in practice. Keywords: market economy operator principle; MEOP; market economy investor principle; MEIP; benchmarking; pari passu; profitability analysis


An Illustration of a Textbook Case or Rather of the Principle That the Devil Is in the Detail? · Cases T-607/17 Volotea, T-716/17 Germanwings and T-8/18 easyJet · Annotation by Marianne Clayton, Maria Segura and Lara Manuel journal article

Annotation on the Judgments of the General Court of the European Union (First Chamber) of 13 May 2020 in Cases T-607/17 Volotea v Commission, T-716/17 Germanwings v Commission and T-8/18 easyJet v Commission

Marianne Clayton, Maria Segura, Lara Manuel

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 19 (2020), Issue 3, Page 372 - 377

On 13 May 2020, the General Court of the EU rendered three judgments on the actions brought by Volotea, easyJet and Germanwings seeking the annulment of Commission Decision SA.33983. In this Decision, the Commission had inter alia concluded that the aid scheme ‘Compensation to Sardinian airports for public service obligations’ entailed the grant of incompatible aid to several airlines that had concluded commercial agreements with airport operators for the development of the island as a tourist destination. The General Court analysed in these judgments each of the criteria of the notion of State aid on its own merits and provided particularly worth-noting reasoning on concepts such as imputability, indirect advantage, the application of the MEOP or the definition of aid scheme.



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