Judgment of the General Court of 19 September 2018 — HH Ferries and Others v Commission

(Case T-68/15) (1)

((State aid - Aid in favour of the Øresund road-rail fixed link - Public financing granted by the Swedish State and the Danish State to the Fixed Link infrastructure project across the Øresund - State guarantees - Tax aid - Decision not to raise any objection - Decision that there was no State aid - Action for annulment - Challengeable act - Admissibility - Failure to initiate the formal investigation procedure - Serious difficulties - Concept of ‘aid scheme’ - Aid to promote the execution of an important project of common European interest - Assessment of the aid element in a guarantee - Whether the aid contained in a guarantee is limited - Proportionality - Legitimate expectations))

(2018/C 392/23)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicants: HH Ferries I/S, formerly Scandlines Øresund I/S (Helsingør, Denmark), HH Ferries Helsingor ApS (Helsingør), HH Ferries Helsingborg AB, formerly HH-Ferries Helsingborg AB (Helsingborg, Sweden) (represented by: M. Johansson, R. Azelius, P. Remnelid and L. Sandberg-Mørch, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: L. Flynn, S. Noë, R. Sauer and L. Armati, acting as Agents,)

Interveners in support of the defendants: Kingdom of Denmark (represented initially by: C. Thorning, and subsequently by J. Nymann-Lindegren, acting as Agents, and by R. Holdgaard, lawyer), Kingdom of Sweden (represented initially by: E. Karlsson, L. Swedenborg, A. Falk, C. Meyer-Seitz, U. Persson and N. Otte Widgren, and subsequently by A.Falk, C. Meyer-Seitz, L. Zettergren and H. Shev, acting as Agents)

Re:

Application brought under Article 263 TFEU for the annulment of Commission Decision C(2014) 7358 final of 15 October 2014 not to classify certain measures as aid and not to raise any objection following the preliminary investigation procedure provided for in Article 108(3) TFEU to State aid SA.36558 (2014/NN) and SA.38371 (2014/NN) — Denmark, and SA.36662 (2014/NN) — Sweden, concerning the public financing of the Øresund Fixed Link road/rail infrastructure project (OJ 2014 C 418, p. 1 and OJ 2014 C 437, p. 1).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Annuls the decision C(2014) 7358 final of the European Commission of 15 October 2014 in so far as it decided not to raise any objection with respect to the tax aid relating to depreciation of assets and the carrying forward of losses granted to Øresundsbro Konsortiet by the Kingdom of Denmark and with respect to guarantees granted to Øresundsbro Konsortiet by the Kingdom of Denmark and the Kingdom of Sweden.

2.	Dismisses the action as to the remainder.

3.	Orders the Commission to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by HH Ferries I/S, HH Ferries Helsingor ApS and HH Ferries Helsingborg AB.

4.	Orders the Kingdom of Denmark and the Kingdom of Sweden to bear their own costs.

(1) OJ C 138, 27.4.2015.