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Comune di Milano: Explanation of the Conditions under Which an Injection of Capital Became a State Aid Measure · Case C-160/19 P Comune di Milano v Commission · Annotation by Alice Pisapia journal article

Annotation of the Judgment of the Court of Justice (Second Chamber) of 10 December 2020 in Case C-160/19 P Comune di Milano v Commission

Alice Pisapia

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 21 (2022), Issue 2, Page 188 - 193

The 2020 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union – C-160/19 P Comune di Milano v Commission – illustrates under which conditions the injection of capital in a company owned and controlled by the State can be considered a measure imputable to the State. The City of Milan (Comune di Milano) tried, until last instance, to defend the injection of public capital in the company SEA Handling SpA which was managing ground services at Milan-Linate and Milan-Malpensa airports. However, the appeal against the judgment of the General Court was supporting the Commission’s interpretation about the qualification of the measure as a State aid unlawfully provided and, in any case, incompatible with the European internal market. The present case note analyses two relevant juridical concepts: the private operator principle as applied by the Court with the private investor test, and the intensity of the judicial review to be applied by the Court during the appeal of a Commission decision in case of complex economic assessments. Finally, given the apical role of the Commission in State aid, the Court cannot replace the assessment carried out by the Commission; it can only revise it if the misapplication of the private investor principle was vitiated by a manifest error.


The Application of State Aid Rules to Markets Subject to Legal Monopolies · Case C-385/18 P Arriva Italia · Annotation by Federica Maldari journal article

Annotation on the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (Second Chamber) of 19 December 2019 in Case C-385/18 P Arriva Italia Srl and Others v Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti

Federica Maldari

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 19 (2020), Issue 1, Page 66 - 73

The Case at issue provides a guidance on the notions of advantage and distortion of competition for the purpose of classifying a State intervention as State aid, and a clarification on the application of the State aid rules to markets which are subject to legal monopolies. The Case arises from the Italian government’s intervention for the benefit of a State-owned operator in a serious financial situation, active in the railway and transport services sectors. In particular, the intervention concerns (i) the statutory allocation of € 70 million for the benefit of the operator and (ii) the transfer of the entire shareholding of the government in that operator, for no consideration, to another State-owned operator of the national railway infrastructure to restore the financial viability of the transferred company. Other public providers having an interest in the transferred company challenged the legality of those measures, arguing that they constitute State aid. Therefore, the Italian Council of State asked the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of Articles 107 and 108(3) TFEU in respect to the afore-mentioned measures. Keywords: Legal Monopolies; Exclusive Rights; Transport Sector; State-Owned Operator.

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