Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:1999:251
Date: 1999-05-19
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Sixth Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Concepts: General;Damage to competition and effect on trade;Obligations of the Member States
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
1. State aid — Concept — Tax exemption granted to certain undertakings by the public author­
ities — 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 estab­
lished 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)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-6/97 
3. State aid — Recovery of unlawful aid — Obligation — Not fulfilled — Justification put for­
ward — Absolute impossibility of implementation — No justification 
(EC Treaty, Art. 93(2) (now Art. 88(2) EC) 
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 subsi­
dies, but also measures which, in various 
forms, mitigate the charges which are nor­
mally included in the budget of an under­
taking 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 exemp­
tion which, although not involving a 
transfer of State resources, places the per­
sons 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 provi­
sions 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 imple­
ment 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. 
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