Case C‑493/14

Dilly’s Wellnesshotel GmbH

v

Finanzamt Linz

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesfinanzgericht)

‛Request for a preliminary ruling — State aid — Aid scheme in the form of reductions in environmental taxes — Regulation (EC) No 800/2008 — Categories of aid which may be regarded as compatible with the internal market and exempt from the obligation to notify — Mandatory nature of the conditions for exemption — Article 3(1) — Express reference to that regulation in the aid scheme’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 21 July 2016

1. State aid — Planned aid — Duty of prior notification and provisional suspension of the implementation of the aid — Scope

   (Arts 107(1) TFEU and 108(3) TFEU)

2. State aid — Prohibition — Exceptions — Categories of aid, defined by regulation, which may be regarded as compatible with the internal market — Regulation No 800/2008 — Conditions for exemption from the obligation to notify — Need for an express reference to the regulation in the aid scheme — Mandatory nature

   (Art. 108(3) TFEU; Commission Regulation No 800/2008, Recital 7 and Arts 3(1) and 25(1))

1.  See the text of the decision.

   (see para. 31)

2.  Article 3(1) of Regulation No 800/2008, declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the common market in application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty, must be interpreted as meaning that the absence, in an aid scheme, in the form of reductions in environmental taxes, of an express reference to that regulation, by citing its title and publication reference in the Official Journal of the European Union, precludes that scheme from being considered to fulfil the conditions for exemption, under Article 25(1) of that regulation, from the obligation to notify laid down in Article 108(3) TFEU.

   Notwithstanding the obligation of prior notification of each measure intended to grant or alter new aid, which is incumbent on the Member States under the Treaties and is one of the fundamental features of the system of monitoring in the field of State aid, if an aid measure adopted by a Member State fulfils the relevant conditions provided for in Regulation No 800/2008, that Member State may rely on the possibility of being exempt from its obligation to notify. Conversely, it is apparent from recital 7 of Regulation No 800/2008 that State aid not covered by that regulation should remain subject to the obligation to notify laid down in Article 108(3) TFEU. Consequently, as a qualification of the general rule that there is the obligation to notify, Regulation No 800/2008 and the conditions laid down by it must be interpreted strictly. In that regard, the condition, laid down in Article 3(1) of Regulation No 800/2008, which stipulates that in order for an aid scheme to be exempt from the obligation to notify under Article 108(3) TFEU, it must contain an express reference to that regulation, does not amount to a mere formality, but is mandatory in nature, so that the failure to fulfil that condition precludes an exemption from being granted under that regulation.

   (see paras 36, 37, 51, 52, operative part)