Case T-450/04: Action brought on 9 November 2004 by Bouygues SA and Bouygues Télécom against Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2005-02-05
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, France, State aid, action for annulment (EU), control of State aid, infringement of EU law, telecommunications industry

5.2.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 31/27

Action brought on 9 November 2004 by Bouygues SA and
Bouygues Télécom against Commission of the European
Communities

combined all the characteristics of State aid, it did not draw
the logical conclusion and classify the statements as aid;

(Case T-450/04)

(2005/C 31/51)

(Language of the case: French)

— as concerns the refusal to order recovery of the aid, there is
a breach of Article 14(1) of Regulation No 659/1999 laying
down detailed rules for the application of Article 88 of the
Treaty and also a breach of essential procedural require-
ments in that the reasons are inadequate. The applicants
maintain that
the Commission was perfectly capable of
quantifying the amount of the aid without infringing Fran-
ce's rights of defence and that recovery of the aid in ques-
tion would not in this case have constituted a breach of the
principle of protection of legitimate expectations.

An action against the Commission of the European Commu-
nities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 9 November 2004 by Bouygues SA
and Bouygues Télécom, established in Paris and in Boulogne
Billancourt (France) respectively, represented by L. Vogel,
J.
Vogel, F. Sureau, D. Théophile, B. Amory and A. Verheyden,
lawyers.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul Article 1 of Decision C(2004)3060 of the Commis-
sion of the European Communities of 2 August 2004;

— annul Article 2 of that decision;

— order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The present action is directed against Decision C(2004)3060 of
2 August 2004, whereby the European Commission considered
that the shareholder's advance granted by France to the Groupe
France Télécom in December 2002, in the form of a credit line
of EUR 9,000 million, placed in the context of the statements
made since 2002, constituted State aid incompatible with the
common market. The Commission also decided that that aid
should not be recovered.

As regards the finding that the measure in question constituted
aid, the applicants further criticise the decision in issue for
having refused to classify as State aid the commitments
resulting from the statements of
the French Government,
which had publicly supported France Télécom's credit between
July and October 2002, although that undertaking, which was
heavily in debt, was making enormous losses.

In support of their claims, the applicants allege that:

— by refusing to classify as State aid the statements of the
French Government of July, September and October 2002,
taken either individually or collectively, the Commission
misapplied Article 87 of the Treaty. The defendant should
have found in that regard that the statements had conferred
on France Télécom an advantage which distorted both
competition and trade between Member States;

— the contested decision is based on contradictory and inade-
quate reasons. The applicants maintain on that point that,
the French Government's statements
after

finding that

Action brought on 12 November 2004 by Association
Française des Opérateurs de Réseaux et Services de Télé-
communications – AFORS Télécom against Commission
of the European Communities

(Case T-456/04)

(2005/C 31/52)

(Language of the case: French)

An action against the Commission of the European Commu-
nities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 12 November 2004 by Association
Française des Opérateurs de Réseaux et Services de Télécommu-
nications – AFORS Télécom, established in Paris, represented
by O. Fréget, lawyer.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— annul Article 2 of Decision C(2004)3060 of the Commis-
the European Communities of 2 August 2004

sion of
concerning State aid paid by France to France Télécom;

— order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In the context of a scheme designed to restore the balance of
the French telecommunications company France Télécom,
France, at the time the majority shareholder in that company,
granted it a shareholder's advance, in order to shore up its own
funds, in the form of a credit line of EUR 9,000 million. By
the contested decision, the Commission found that the advance
in question constituted State aid. However, by Article 2 of that
decision, it decided that no measures to recover the amount
concerned should be taken.