Case T-465/20: Judgment of the General Court of 19 May 2021 — Ryanair v Commission (TAP; Covid-19) (State aid — Portuguese air transport market — Aid provided by Portugal to TAP owing to the COVID-19 pandemic — State loan — Decision not to raise any objections — Point 22 of the Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring non-financial undertakings in difficulty — Company belonging to a group — Intrinsic difficulties not resulting from an arbitrary allocation of costs within the group — Difficulties which are too serious to be dealt with by the group itself — Duty to state reasons — Maintenance of the effects of the decision)
Date: 2021-05-19
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: Portugal, State aid, aid for restructuring, aid to undertakings, airline, company in difficulties, control of State aid, coronavirus disease, epidemic, loan








C_2021263EN.01002002.xml










5.7.2021   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 263/20






Judgment of the General Court of 19 May 2021 — Ryanair v Commission (TAP; Covid-19)
(Case T-465/20) (1)

(State aid - Portuguese air transport market - Aid provided by Portugal to TAP owing to the COVID-19 pandemic - State loan - Decision not to raise any objections - Point 22 of the Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring non-financial undertakings in difficulty - Company belonging to a group - Intrinsic difficulties not resulting from an arbitrary allocation of costs within the group - Difficulties which are too serious to be dealt with by the group itself - Duty to state reasons - Maintenance of the effects of the decision)
(2021/C 263/27)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Applicant: Ryanair DAC (Swords, Ireland) (represented by: E. Vahida, F.-C. Laprévote, S. Rating, I.-G. Metaxas-Maranghidis and V. Blanc, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: L. Flynn, V. Bottka and S. Noë, acting as Agents)

Interveners in support of the defendant: French Republic (represented by: P. Dodeller and E. de Moustier, acting as Agents), Republic of Poland (represented by: B. Majczyna, acting as Agent), Portuguese Republic (represented by: L. Inez Fernandes, P. Barros da Costa and S. Jaulino, acting as Agents, and by N. Mimoso Ruiz, lawyer)

Re:

Application under Article 263 TFEU for annulment of Commission Decision C(2020) 3989 final of 10 June 2020 on State aid SA.57369 (2020/N) COVID-19 — Portugal — Aid to TAP.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Annuls Commission Decision C(2020) 3989 final of 10 June 2020 on State aid SA.57369 (2020/N) — COVID-19 — Portugal — Aid to TAP;










2.


Orders the effects of the annulment of that decision to be suspended pending the adoption of a new decision by the European Commission under Article 108 TFEU; those effects are to be suspended for a period not exceeding two months from the date of delivery of this judgment if the Commission decides to adopt such a new decision under Article 108(3) TFEU, and for a reasonable further period if the Commission decides to initiate the procedure under Article 108(2) TFEU;










3.


Orders the Commission to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by Ryanair DAC;










4.


Orders the French Republic, the Republic of Poland and the Portuguese Republic to bear their own respective costs.






(1)  OJ C 287, 31.8.2020.