Case T-68/03: Action brought on 24 February 2003 by Olimpiaki Aeroporia A.E. (Olympic Airways) against the Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2003-05-10
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, Greece, State aid, action for annulment (EU), aid for restructuring, air transport

C 112/32

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

10.5.2003

ORDER OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

The applicant claims that the Court should:

of 4 March 2003

— annul the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the
Office of 5 December 2002 in Case No R 1072/2000-2;

in Case T-316/02: Marie-Claude Girardot v Commission
of the European Communities (1)

— order the defendant to pay all the costs.

(Officials — Action for annulment — Refusal to admit to
the tests of a competition — Irregularity of the prior
administrative procedure — Manifest inadmissibility of the
action for annulment)

(2003/C 112/62)

(Language of the case: French)

In Case T-316/02: Marie-Claude Girardot, residing in L’Haye
les Roses (France), represented by E. Boigelot, lawyer, with an
address for service in Luxembourg, against the Commission of
the European Communities (Agents: F. Clotuche-Duvieusart
and H. Tserepa-Lacombe) — application for annulment of the
rejection of the applicant’s application to take part in the tests
for Internal Competition COM/R/502211/01 — the Court of
First Instance (First Chamber), composed of: B. Vesterdorf,
President, and R.M. Moura Ramos and H. Legal,
Judges;
H. Jung, Registrar, has made an order on 4 March 2003, the
operative part of of which is as follows:

1.

2.

The application is dismissed as inadmissible.

The parties are ordered to bear their own costs.

( 1) OJ C 305 of 7.12.02.

Pleas in law and main arguments

Applicants
munity trade mark:

for Com-

Community trade mark
sought:

Proprietor of mark or
sign cited in the oppo-
sition proceedings:

Mark or sign cited in
opposition:

F. Dann and A. Backer

The word mark ‘HOOLIGAN’ —
application No 7179 filed in
respect of goods in Class 25

The applicant

The French word mark and the
international word mark ‘OLLY
GAN’, registered,
inter alia, for
goods in Class 25 (clothing)

Decision of the Oppo-
sition Division:

Refusal of
registration

the application for

Decision of the Board of
Appeal:

Annulment of the decision of the
Opposition Division

Pleas in law:

Infringement of Article 8(1)(b) of
Regulation (EC) No 40/94 and of
the legal concept of likelihood of
confusion.

Action brought on 20 February 2003 by Société Provença-
le d’Achat et de Gestion (SPAG) against the Office for
Harmonisation in the Internal Market

Action brought on 24 February 2003 by Olimpiaki
(Olympic Airways) against the Com-
Aeroporia A.E.

mission of the European Communities

(Case T-57/03)

(2003/C 112/63)

(Case T-68/03)

(2003/C 112/64)

(Language of the case: French)

(Language of the Case: Greek)

An action against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal
Market was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 20 February 2003 by Société
Provençale d’Achat et de Gestion (SPAG), established in
Marseilles, France, represented by K. Manhaeve, lawyer, with
an address for service in Luxembourg. F. Dann and A. Backer,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, were also parties to the proceed-
ings before the Board of Appeal.

An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 24 February 2003 by Olimpiaki
Aeroporia A.E. (Olympic Airways), whose seat is at 96-100
Leoforos Singrou, 11741 Athens, Greece, represented by Denis
Waelbroek, Efthimios Bourtzalas, Julian Ellison, Matthew Hall,
Andreas Kalogeropoulos, Kharis Tagaras and Aristidis Khiote-
lis, lawyers.

10.5.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 112/33

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul in whole or in part, under Articles 230 EC and
231 EC, the Commission decision of 11 December 2002
(C(2002) 4831 final) on State aid granted by Greece to
the applicant;

— order the defendant to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant is an air transport company whose head office
is in Athens. By the contested decision, the Commission
declared certain restructuring aid which had been granted by
Greece to the applicant to be incompatible with the common
market within the meaning of Article 87(1) EC, on the ground
that the conditions subject to which the aid had initially been
authorised by Commission Decision 1999/332/EC were no
longer met. In the decision, the Commission also declared
incompatible with the common market new State aid
implemented by Greece in favour of the applicant in the form
of tolerance of its prolonged non-payment of social security
contributions, value added tax, the airport passenger tax
known as ‘Spatosimo’ and charges and rent which were
payable by it to airports. The Commission required Greece to
take all the necessary measures to recover from the applicant
the abovementioned aid.

In support of its action, the applicant pleads:

— that

the Commission committed manifest errors of
assessment and appraisal, infringed the obligation to state
reasons, erred in law, infringed the rules concerning the
burden of proof and infringed the right to a fair hearing
so far as concerns its conclusions that Greece failed to
comply with certain of the undertakings entered into by
it and referred to in Decisions 1999/332/EC and 94/696/
EC. The applicant also pleads that Article 87(3)(c) EC was
infringed or misapplied in that the Commission failed
to examine sufficiently or correctly whether the aid
authorised in 1998 could be considered compatible with
that article.

— that

the Commission committed manifest errors of
assessment and appraisal, infringed the obligation to state
reasons, erred in law, infringed the rules concerning the
burden of proof, infringed the right to a fair hearing and
offended against the principle of legal certainty so far as
concerns its findings relating to the new aid purportedly
granted by Greece to the applicant
in the form of
tolerance of non-payment of charges, tax and rent, as
referred to above.

— that the Commission misused its powers since, in the
applicant’s submission,
the motive for the contested
decision is the desire that the ‘coup de grâce’ be adminis-
tered to the applicant or at least that the applicant be
weakened.

been

State

authorised

aid which had

— The applicant further submits that the final instalment of
the
by
Decision 1999/332/EC was never paid to it, an omission
known to, and approved by, the Commission and consti-
tuting an amendment of the restructuring programme to
which the Commission had likewise agreed. On the basis
of that submission, the applicant contends that the
principle of the protection of legitimate expectations and
an essential procedural requirement have been breached
by the Commission which now pleads breach of the
original programme, when that programme, with the
agreement of the Commission itself, was never completed.
The applicant also pleads breach of the non bis in idem
rule, arguing that the non-payment of the final instalment
of the State aid constitutes a penalty imposed by the
Commission, which has thus exhausted its right
to
impose penalties and is unable to go back.

Action brought on 3 March 2003 by Tokai Carbon Co.,
Ltd. against the Commission of the European Communi-
ties

(Case T-71/03)

(2003/C 112/65)

(Language of the case: English)

An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 3 March 2003 by Tokai Carbon
Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, represented by Mr Gerwin Van Gerven
and Mr Thomas Franchoo, Lawyers, with an address for service
in Luxembourg.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul Article 3 of the Commission decision C(2002)
5083 final of 17 December 2002 in Case COMP/E-2/
37.667 — Speciality Graphite, insofar as it imposes a fine
of — 6,97 million on the applicant, or alternatively, to
substantially reduce that fine; and

— order the Commission to pay the costs.