Work Area: State Aid

The EU’s General Court has ordered Belgium to claw back €700 million in unpaid taxes from 55 companies, four years after first striking out the European Commission’s original state aid decision.

20 September 2023

The EU’s state aid provisions must move away from temporary responses to geopolitical crises in favour of an approach that tackles structural problems in the economy, a head of unit at the European Commission has said.

13 September 2023

The European Commission’s inability to routinely investigate state aid complaints underlines the resource challenges it will face under its new foreign subsidies regulation, a leading competition lawyer has said.

13 September 2023

European trade unions have called on Margrethe Vestager to distance her agency from comments by its former chief competition economist suggesting the EU’s heavy industry should “disappear”.

09 August 2023

An English council has successfully fended off the country’s first challenge under its new subsidy control regime, as the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled a public body subsidising itself does not run afoul of the rules.

28 July 2023

Featured in Europe, Middle East and Africa Antitrust Review 2024

Targeted legislative changes and a focus on partnerships with regulatory authorities are shaping Greece’s antitrust regime, influencing its protections against anticompetitive behaviour, abuse of dominance and improper mergers.

30 June 2023

Featured in Europe, Middle East and Africa Antitrust Review 2024

To help the government maintain its proud state aid tradition as an investor, guarantor, lender and subsidiser of national businesses, administrative and civil courts are taking an increasingly firm stance on preventing and recovering illegal state aid.

30 June 2023

A UK appellate court has overturned a cap on legal fees imposed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in the first-ever challenge to be brought against a Subsidy Control Act decision, ruling that the restriction on costs was “artificial and arbitrary”.

26 June 2023

An EU advocate general has backed the General Court’s decision to overturn an order from the European Commission for Luxembourg to recover €250 million in alleged illegal state aid from Amazon, in another blow to one of Margrethe Vestager’s flagship policies.

08 June 2023

It is of the “utmost importance” for the future of state aid enforcement for the EU’s highest court to find that Apple owes Ireland over €13 billion in back taxes, the European Commission has argued, as the company insisted it is paying that tax in the US.

24 May 2023