Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 July 2011 – Territorio Histórico de Vizcaya – Diputación Foral de Vizcaya and Others v Commission

(Joined Cases C-471/09 P to C-473/09 P)

Appeal – State aid – Action for annulment – Commission Decisions on State aid schemes implemented by Spain for firms in the provinces of Vizcaya, Álava and Guipúzcoa – Tax credit amounting to 45% of investments – Legitimate expectations – Principle of proportionality – Principles of legal certainty and good administration – Action within a reasonable time – Failure to notify

1. Appeals – Grounds – Challenge, repeating the pleas in law and arguments raised before the General Court, to the latter’s interpretation or application of Union law – Admissibility (Art. 256(1), second para, TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 58, first para.) (see paras 55-56, 58)

2. State aid – Recovery of unlawful aid – Aid granted in breach of the procedural rules under Article 88 EC – Legitimate expectations entertained by the recipients – Protection – Conditions and limits – No action taken by the Commission for a relatively long time – No legitimate expectations (Arts 87 EC and 88 EC) (see paras 64-65, 68, 75-77)

3. Procedure – Measures of organisation of procedure – Request for production of documents – Duties of the person making the request (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 64(3)(d) and (4)) (see paras 85, 88)

4. Appeals – Grounds – Review by the Court of the General Court’s refusal to order measures of inquiry – Scope (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 66(1)) (see para. 89)

5. State aid – Examination by the Commission – Examination of an aid scheme as a whole – Whether permissible (Arts 87 EC and 88 EC) (see paras 98-99)

6. State aid – Recovery of unlawful aid – Restoration of the previous situation – No breach of principle of proportionality (Arts 87 EC and 88 EC) (see paras 100, 104)

7. State aid – Recovery of unlawful aid – Existence of an aid scheme – Whether possible for the national authorities to ask the Commission to exclude certain individual aid from the duty to recover (Arts 87 EC and 88 EC) (see paras 101-102)

8. Procedure – Intervention – Application seeking to support the form of order sought by one of the parties – Application containing specific grounds of challenge but not altering the framework of the action – Admissibility (Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 40, fourth para.) (see paras 117-119)

9. State aid – Recovery of unlawful aid – Aid granted in breach of the procedural rules under Article 88 EC – No action taken by the Commission, for want of enough information available to it, for a relatively long time – No breach of the principles of legal certainty and of good administration (Arts 87 EC and 88 EC; Council Regulation No 659/1999, Art. 14(1)) (see paras 126-127, 129-130, 134-135)

Re:

Appeals brought against the judgment of the Court of First Instance (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition) of 9 September 2009 in Joined Cases T‑227/01 to T‑229/01, T‑265/01, T‑266/01 and T‑270/01 Diputación Foral de Álava and Gobierno Vasco and Others v Commission , whereby that court dismissed, in Cases T‑227/01 and T‑265/01, an application for annulment of Commission Decision 2002/820/EC of 11 July 2001 on State aid schemes implemented by Spain for firms in the province of Álava in the form of a tax credit amounting to 45% of investments (OJ 2002 L 296, p. 1), in Cases T‑228/01 and T‑266/01, an application for annulment of Commission Decision 2003/27/EC of 11 July 2001 on State aid schemes implemented by Spain for firms in the province of Vizcaya in the form of a tax credit amounting to 45% of investments (OJ 2003 L 17, p. 1) and, in Cases T‑229/01 and T‑270/01, an application for annulment of Commission Decision 2002/894/EC of 11 July 2001 on State aid schemes implemented by Spain for firms in the province of Guipúzcoa in the form of a tax credit amounting to 45% of investments (OJ 2002 L 314, p. 26).

Operative part

The Court:

1. Dismisses the main appeals and the cross-appeals;

2. Orders the Territorio Histórico de Vizcaya – Diputación Foral de Vizcaya, the Territorio Histórico de Álava – Diputación Foral de Álava, the Territorio Histórico de Guipúzcoa – Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa, the Cámara Oficial de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de Vizcaya, the Cámara Oficial de Comercio e Industria de Álava and the Cámara Oficial de Comercio, Industria y Navegación de Guipúzcoa to pay in equal shares the costs relating to the appeals;