Case T-354/05: Action brought on  19 September 2005  — TF1 v Commission of the European Communities
Date: 2005-12-10
Institutions: Court of First Instance
Subjects: European Commission, France, State aid, action for annulment (EU), control of State aid, quasi-fiscal charge, television

C 315/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

10.12.2005

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

Action brought on 13 September 2005 — Ott and Others
v Commission

Form of order sought

(Case T-349/05)

(2005/C 315/22)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicant(s): Martial Ott (Oberanven, Luxembourg), Fernando
Lopez Tola (Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg),
Francis Weiler (Itzig, Luxembourg) (represented by: G. Bounéou
and F. Frabetti, lawyers)

Defendant(s): Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

The applicant(s) claim(s) that the Court should:

— annul the list of officials promoted in 2004 (1), since that
list does not include the names of the applicants, and, as an
incidental plea, that the Court should annul the travaux
preparatoires of that decision;

— in the alternative, annul the allocation of promotion points
in particular, further to the recommendations

for 2004,
made by the Promotion Committees;

— order the defendant to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The pleas relied on by the applicants are identical to those
relied on by the applicants in Case T-327/05.

(1) List published in Administrative Notice No 130, 30.11.2004.

Action brought on 19 September 2005 — TF1 v Commis-
sion of the European Communities

(Case T-354/05)

(2005/C 315/23)

Language of the case: French

The applicant(s) claim(s) that the Court should:

— annul the decision given by the Commission on 20 April
2005 regarding the licence fee system in favour of France
Télévision;

— make an order as to costs in accordance with the law.

Pleas in law and main arguments

By the present action, Télévision Française 1 seeks the annul-
ment of the Commission decision of 20 April 2005 by which
it declared compatible with the common market under Article
86(2) EC the licence fee system granted by the French authori-
ties to France Télévision.

The applicant relies on five pleas in support of its action for
annulment, alleging, essentially:

— insufficient statement of reasons for the decision;

— failure to respect

the right

to be heard;

the applicant
complains that the Commission did not give it notice to
submit its comments, in particular on the appropriateness
and scope of undertakings made by the French State under
the procedure for examining the aid in question, in spite of
the existence of a dialogue and previous contacts between
the applicant and the Commission;

— the insufficient scope of the undertakings given by the
French State; according to the applicant, the undertakings
proposed are incapable of guaranteeing the compatibility of
the French licence fee system with the applicable Com-
munity rules on State aid, in particular the rule of propor-
tionality of public service funding and the obligation of
transparency in the use of public funds;

— abuse of process; the applicant criticises the conduct of the
defendant which seems to remit to the national authorities
responsibility for assessing whether a State support measure
constitutes aid within the meaning of Community law,
whereas that control comes within the exclusive compe-
tence of the Commission;

— an error in law as to the applicability of Article 86(2) of the
EC Treaty to aid resulting from overcompensation of the
cost of public service obligations. The applicant challenges
the decision in
interpretation of
the Commission's
Altmark (1) and its application in the present case. It claims
that the defendant erred in law by examining whether a
State measure to compensate for public service costs could
be justified under Article 86(2) of the EC Treaty, when the
Commission had itself found that that measure did not
fulfil the conditions set out in the Altmark judgment.

Parties

Applicant(s): Télévision Française 1 SA (Boulogne, France)
(represented by: J.-P. Hordies, C. Smits, lawyers)

(1) Case C-280/00 [2003] ECR I-7747.

Defendant(s): Commission of the European Communities