Order — ECLI:EU:C:2015:671
Date: 2015-10-06
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Vice-President
Based on: Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (consolidated version 2008)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition;Procedural provisions
Procedure: Application to intervene;Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded;Appeal - inadmissible
Origin: France

Summary — Order of the Vice-President of the Court, 6 October 2015 1. Judicial proceedings — Intervention — Admissibility criteria — Interest in the result of the case — Concept — Need for a direct and existing interest — Case relating to the legality of a Commission decision on State aid — No direct interest of a minority shareholder of a company relying on an impairment of its financial interests — Limits — Result such as to affect the legal situation of that shareholder (Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 40, second para.) 2. Appeal — Grounds — Plea submitted for the first time in the context of the appeal — Inadmissibility (Art. 256(1), second para., TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) 3. Appeal — Grounds — Review by the Court of the assessment of the facts and evidence — Possible only where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted (Art. 256(1), second para., TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) 1. In accordance with the second paragraph of Article 40 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, any person may intervene before the Courts of the European Union if such a person can establish an interest in the result of a case submitted to one of those courts. The concept of an ‘interest in the result of a case’, within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 40 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, must be defined in the light of the precise subject-matter of the dispute and be understood as meaning a direct, existing interest in the ruling on the forms of order sought and not as an interest in relation to the pleas in law or arguments put forward. The words ‘result of a case’, used in that provision, refer to the final decision sought, as set out in the operative part of the future judgment. In that regard, it is appropriate, in particular, to ascertain that the applicant to intervene is directly affected by the contested measure and that his interest in the result of the case is certain. In principle, an interest in the result of the case can be considered to be sufficiently direct only if that result is capable of altering the legal position of the applicant to intervene. In the context of an action for annulment brought against a Commission decision on State aid, an adverse effect, even where it is significant, on the economic and financial interests of the shareholders of a company which is a main party in a case pending before the General Court, and the interests of the investment fund through which certain investors hold their shares in that company, cannot be considered to be a direct adverse effect on the interests of those shareholders and of that fund, justifying an interest in the result of the case within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 40 of the Statue of the Court of Justice, since it does not alter their legal situation. Such economic and financial interests are mingled with those of the company itself, which is a main party in the case at issue and are affected only indirectly by the result of the case, through the consequences which that result has for that main party. However, the fact that a minority shareholder of a company has interests that diverge from those of the main shareholder of the company and therefore, possibly, from those of the company itself, may, in certain cases, confer upon that minority shareholder an interest in the result of the case in which the company in question is one of the main parties, distinct from the latter’s interest. In order to invoke that exception, it is nevertheless necessary for the minority shareholder to put forward specific evidence establishing the existence of that divergence of interests in relation to the result of the proceedings in question, having regard to the purpose pursued by the latter. (see paras 4-6, 20, 31) 2. See the text of the decision. (see paras 11, 13, 15) 3. See the text of the decision. (see paras 24, 26)