Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 State aid - Concept - Tax exemption granted to certain undertakings by the public authorities - Covered

(EC Treaty, Art. 92(1) (now, after amendment, Art. 87(1) EC))

2 State aid - Adverse effect on competition - Tax exemption granted to undertakings established in one Member State with no real compensation in practice for undertakings in other Member States

(EC Treaty, Art. 92(1) (now, after amendment, Art. 87(1) EC))

3 State aid - Recovery of unlawful aid - Obligation - Not fulfilled - Justification put forward - Absolute impossibility of implementation - No justification

(EC Treaty, Art. 93(2) (now Art. 88(2) EC)

Summary

1 The concept of aid within the meaning of Article 92(1) of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 87(1) EC) embraces not only positive benefits, such as subsidies, but also measures which, in various forms, mitigate the charges which are normally included in the budget of an undertaking and which, therefore, without being subsidies in the strict sense of the word, are similar in character and have the same effect.

A measure whereby the public authorities grant to certain undertakings a tax exemption which, although not involving a transfer of State resources, places the persons to whom the exemption applies in a more favourable financial position than other taxpayers constitutes State aid within the meaning of Article 92(1) of the Treaty.

2 A tax credit scheme for the benefit of road hauliers from a particular Member State has adverse effects on their competitors - namely road hauliers established in other Member States, whether operating on their own account or for hire or reward - in so far as, even if the legislation of the Member State concerned provides for the latter to receive compensatory payments, they cannot, in the absence of any provisions laying down detailed rules for granting those payments, usefully avail themselves of the right to claim them.

3 Although a Member State may plead that it was absolutely impossible for it to implement properly a Community decision requiring it to recover aid unlawfully granted, that condition is not satisfied where the Member State concerned merely relies on the legal or practical difficulties involved in implementing the decision and takes no step whatsoever to recover the aid from the undertakings in question.