Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2014:114
Date: 2014-02-27
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Seventh Chamber
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber), 27 February 2014 State aid — Prohibition — Exceptions — Commission Recommendation concerning the definition of micro, small and medium sized enterprises — Definition of ‘small and medium-sized enterprises’ — Notion of ‘linked enterprises’ — Notion of ‘group of natural persons acting jointly’ — Scope (Commission Recommendation 2003/361, Annex, Art. 3(3), fourth para.) The fourth subparagraph of Article 3(3) of the Annex to Recommendation 2003/361 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises must be interpreted as meaning that enterprises may be regarded as linked for the purposes of that article where it is clear from the analysis of the legal and economic relations between them that, through a natural person or a group of natural persons acting jointly, they constitute a single economic unit, even though they do not formally have any of the relationships referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 3(3) of that annex. Natural persons who work together in order to exercise an influence over the commercial decisions of the enterprises concerned which precludes those enterprises from being regarded as economically independent from each other are to be regarded as acting jointly for the purposes of the fourth subparagraph of Article 3(3) of that annex. Whether that condition is satisfied depends on the circumstances of the case and is not necessarily conditional on the existence of contractual relations between those persons or a finding that they intended to circumvent the definition of a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise within the meaning of that recommendation. (see para. 39, operative part)