Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Unlawfulness - Damage - Causal link - Burden of proof

(EC Treaty, Art. 215, second para.)

2 Non-contractual liability - Conditions - Actual and certain damage - Burden of proof

Summary

1 By virtue of the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty and the general principles to which that provision refers, in order for the Community to incur non-contractual liability a number of conditions must be met as regards the unlawfulness of the conduct alleged against the institutions, the actual existence of damage and the existence of a causal link between that conduct and the alleged damage.

The burden of proving a causal link between the alleged fault on the part of the institution and the injury pleaded falls on the applicant.

The required link is not established in the case of an applicant who seeks compensation for damage allegedly caused by the Commission's delay in notifying it of a decision on State aid, in so far as that delay, even assuming that it can be characterised as wrongful, cannot have caused the applicant independent material damage distinct from any damage which could arise from the decision itself.

2 In order to obtain reparation for the non-material damage alleged, the applicant must show that it has sustained actual and certain damage. Accordingly, it cannot, in principle, confine itself to pleading the allegedly wrongful nature of the Commission's conduct with respect to it. It falls to the applicant, at the very least, to prove that the institution's conduct of which it complains was, by reason of its gravity, such as to cause it damage of that kind.