Order — ECLI:EU:C:2003:141
Date: 2003-03-06
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Concepts: Intervention
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal;Application to intervene - unfounded;Application to intervene - successful
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment 1. Action for annulment – Pleas in law – Misuse of powers – Meaning 2. Appeal – Grounds of appeal – Incorrect assessment of the facts – Inadmissible – Review by the Court of the assessment of the evidence – Excluded except in cases of distortion (Art. 225 EC; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) 3. Appeal – Grounds of appeal – Plea in law submitted for the first time in the appeal – Inadmissible (Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58) 1. A measure is only vitiated by misuse of powers if it appears, on the basis of objective, relevant and consistent evidence, to have been taken with the exclusive or main purpose of achieving an end other than that stated. (see para. 44) 2. The assessment of the facts does not, unless the clear sense of the evidence produced before the Court of First Instance was distorted, constitute a question of law which is subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice in an appeal. (see para. 46) 3. To allow a party to put forward for the first time before the Court of Justice a plea in law which it has not raised before the Court of First Instance would be to allow it to bring before the Court, whose jurisdiction in appeals is limited, a case of wider ambit than that which came before the Court of First Instance. In an appeal, the Court’s jurisdiction is confined to review of the findings of law on the pleas argued before the Court of First Instance. (see para. 60)