competitionlaw

By the decision delivered in Full-Scale CCS Project (decision of 17 July 2020 no. 85378), the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) approved investment aid and operating aid granted by Norway to Norcem AS (Norcem), Fortnum Oslo Varme AS (FOV) and Northern Lights (NL) for the construction and operation of a full-scale project for the capture, transport and storage of CO₂ ( the CCS Project ). The legal basis on which the ESA cleared the notified financing measures of the CCS Project was Article 61(3) of the EEA Agreement. These measures were found to be compatible with the functioning of the EEA Agreement given that they met the relevant compatibility conditions in the European Environmental Aid Guidelines (EEAG). The facts of the case On 2 July 2020 Norway notified investment aid and operating aid to finance the implementation of the CCS Project over a period of 10 years. The publicly-funded CCS Project consists of three elements: a number of CO₂ capture plants ( the Capture Projects ...

The first post of 2021 is about the decision handed down by the Luxembourg Competition Authority (LCA) in the LNS case (no. 2020-NC-06, LaboratoireNational de Santé ). In this case the LCA examined and rejected an application for interim relief against allegedly anticompetitive practices concerning Covid-19 testing in the middle of the pandemics. The proceedings commenced on 14 September 2020 when Bionext, a privately-held medical laboratory, filed a complaint with the LCA. By the complaint Bionext reported a number of practices put in place by a competing public undertaking, Laboratoire National de Santé (LNS), which appeared to breach Article 102 TFEU and the corresponding national competition rules. More specifically, Bionext pointed to the decision of the Luxembourg authorities to confer on LNS a legal monopoly on some Covid-19 testing methods: the PCR tests for hospitals and serological tests to be executed in the context of the government-backed massive screening campaign. Foll...

  In Debrecen International Airport the European Commission approved operating aid granted by Hungary to an airport hit by the Covid-19 crisis. The aid measure notified to the Commission was aimed at covering the losses that the beneficiary, a small regional airport, would suffer over the 5-year period between 2019 and 2024. The losses forecast was based on a business plan drafted by the Hungarian authorities before the outbreak of the pandemic. The Commission approved the on the ground that this national measure met all the conditions set out in the 2014 Aviation Guidelines for operating aid to be declared compatible with the internal market. Of particular interest is the discussion made by the Commission about the proportionality condition in Point 125 of the Aviation Guideline. Here, the Commission   followed a flexible approach in assessing the lawfulness of operating granted to an airport whose activities were seriously impacted by the pandemic, considering in partic...

In what seems to be one of the most important Luxembourg competition case over the past years the Luxembourg Competition Authority (LCA) has found the German food company Bahlsen and three grocery stores, Auchan, Cactus and Delhaize to have implemented anticompetitive price vertical restraints ( decision of 20 November 2020, nos. 2020-FO-03, 2020-FO-04 and 2020-FO-05 CA ) . The LCA opened by its own initiative an antitrust investigation against the parties in 2015 when it surprisingly found out that the cakes and biscuits produced by Bahlsen had the same resale prices in many shops in Luxembourg. Evidence collected in the following investigation showed that over the 2011-2015 period Bahlsen, together with Auchan, Cactus and Delhaize, have jointly fixed the reselling prices of a wide range of cakes and biscuits marketed by the German company. In practice, the grocery stores complied with the selling prices ‘recommended’ by the manufacturer in exchange of financial incentives in the ...

  Introduction The European Commission has declared that aid granted by Germany to holiday air carrier Condor on the basis of Article 107(2)(b) TFEU [1] .   Background Article 107(2)(b) TFEU allows Member States to grant compensation of damages directly caused by exceptional circumstances. Condor is a German charter airline that experienced significant revenue decline due to travel restrictions imposed by countries to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, though the airline took up new activities such as   return flights for stranded passengers and cargo flights. Germany notified the European Commission a package aid to compensate Condor for the direct damage suffered because of the cancellation or re-scheduling of flights following the imposition of travel restrictions linked to the Covid-19 outbreak over the March 2020-December 2020 period. The aid consisted of two State-guaranteed loans with subsidized interest rates amounting to € 529.8 million and € 20.2 million...

In the recent Haugesund Airport and TORP Sandefjord Airport cases the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) has cleared Covid-19 compensation measures granted by Norway authorities to the airports of Haugensund and Sandefjord on the legal basis of Article 61(2)(b) of the EEA Agreement. Alike Article 107(2)(b) TFEU, Article 61(2)(b) allows ‘… aid to make good the damage caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences …’. The Norwegian authorities made grant in the form of the payment of a lump sum of NOK 90 million and NOK 56,8 million to the operators of the airports of Haugesund and Sandefjord, respectively. The ESA considered the grants as state aid but it authorizes them because they met all the compatibility conditions set out in Article 61(2)(b) of the EEA Agreement.   i) Exceptional circumstance The ESA qualified the Covid-19 outbreak as an exceptional occurrence because it was not foreseeable and is clearly distinguishable from ordinary events, falling outside t...