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Keyword: notion of undertaking

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On the Qualification of Municipal Authorities as Undertakings · Case C-656/20 P Hermann Albers eK v European Commission · Annotation by Anna Panarella journal article

Annotation on the Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 24 March 2022 in Case C-656/20 P Hermann Albers eK v European Commission

Anna Panarella

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 22 (2023), Issue 1, Page 101 - 106

On 24 March 2022 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Case C-656/20 P Hermann Albers v European Commission issued a ruling on whether the transfer of public funds between public authorities constitutes State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The main issue underpinning this case is the qualification of the municipal transport authorities receiving funds as ‘regulators’ or ‘undertakings’ in light of their ownership interests in local transport enterprises. The case provides an opportunity to investigate the boundaries of the notion of ‘undertaking’ under EU competition and State aid law. To this end, the analysis focuses, on the one hand, on the constitutive elements of the notion at issue, and, on the other hand, it takes into consideration the notion of ‘emanation of a State’ that can be used for the correct qualification of complex entities performing multiple activities at the same time. The analysis shows that State ownership alone has no bearing on whether a certain public entity qualifies as an undertaking or not.

Belgian Ports Carry Out Economic Activities and Should Be Liable to Corporate Tax · Case T-696/17 Belgian Sea Ports · Annotation by Jessica Bracker and Schéhérazade Oozeerally journal article

Annotation on the Judgment of the General Court of 20 September 2019 in Case T-696/17 Havenbedrijf Antwerpen NV and Maatschappij van de Brugse Zeehaven NV v European Commission

Jessica Bracker, Schéhérazade Oozeerally

European State Aid Law Quarterly, Volume 19 (2020), Issue 2, Page 212 - 219

The Case T-696/17 Belgian Sea Ports relates to an action for annulment introduced by the port authorities of Antwerp and Bruges against the European Commission Decision 2017/2115 which found that Belgian port operators had benefited from incompatible State aid through an exemption from corporate tax. This case is of interest in that it sheds light on the difficulties of establishing that an entity is not an ‘undertaking’ in circumstances where the latter performs mixed activities which are both economic and non-economic in nature. Moreover, it provides yet another confirmation that the application of the ‘three step’ analysis for the assessment of selectivity is not always a straightforward exercise. Lastly, it confirms that an aid beneficiary cannot rely on an unlawful aid received by a third party to allege a breach of the principle of equal treatment.

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