Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2002:53
Date: 2002-02-28
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fourth Chamber, Extended Composition
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition
Concepts: Aid for cultural purposes
Procedure: Action for annulment - successful
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment 
State aid — Prohibition — Derogations — Aid which may be regarded as compatible 
with the common market — Export aid in the book sector — Assessment of the effects 
of aid on competition and trade — Reference market — Delimitation — Criteria 
(EC Treaty, Art. 92(3)(d) (now, after amendment, Art. S7(3)(d) EC» 
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SUMMARY — CASE T-155/98 
In order to establish whether, in the course 
of assessing whether an export aid in the 
book sector may be regarded as compatible 
with the common market, competition is 
affected to an extent that is contrary to the 
common interest for the purposes of 
Article 92(3)(d) of the Treaty (now, after 
amendment, Article 87(3)(d) EC), it is 
necessary to define the market on which 
the aid takes effect. So far as concerns the 
material definition of the market, in order 
to be considered the subject of a sufficiently 
distinct market, it must be possible to 
distinguish the service or the good in 
question by virtue of particular character­
istics that so differentiate it from other 
services or other goods that it is only to a 
small degree interchangeable with those 
alternatives and affected by competition 
from them. In that context, the degree of 
interchangeability between products or ser­
vices must be assessed in terms of their 
objective characteristics, as well as the 
structure of supply and demand on the 
market, and competitive conditions. 
The Commission must examine the effects 
of a State aid on competition and trade 
between the other operators carrying on the 
same activity as that for which the aid was 
granted, so as to carry out an assessment of 
the true impact of such an aid on compe­
tition. Unless it carries out such an assess­
ment, the Commission commits a manifest 
error of assessment as regards the definition 
of the market. 
(see paras 56-57, 71) 
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