Case T-743/21: Judgment of the General Court of 5 February 2025 – Ryanair v Commission (TAP II; rescue aid; COVID-19) (State aid – Portuguese air transport market – Rescue aid granted by Portugal to TAP SGPS – State loan – Decision not to raise any objections – Action for annulment – Locus standi – Admissibility – Eligibility – Point 22 of the Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring 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 – Appropriateness of the aid – Proportionality – Weighing up of the positive and negative effects – Freedom of establishment – Freedom to provide services – Equal treatment – Obligation to state reasons)
Date: 2025-02-05
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: Portugal, State aid, aid for restructuring, air transport, company in difficulties, control of State aid, coronavirus disease, freedom to provide services, principle of proportionality, right of establishment








C_202501754EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/1754


31.3.2025






Judgment of the General Court of 5 February 2025 – Ryanair v Commission (TAP II; rescue aid; COVID-19)


(Case T-743/21)
                (1)

(State aid - Portuguese air transport market - Rescue aid granted by Portugal to TAP SGPS - State loan - Decision not to raise any objections - Action for annulment - Locus standi - Admissibility - Eligibility - Point 22 of the Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring 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 - Appropriateness of the aid - Proportionality - Weighing up of the positive and negative effects - Freedom of establishment - Freedom to provide services - Equal treatment - Obligation to state reasons)
(C/2025/1754)
Language of the case: English

Parties


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

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: I. Barcew and V. Bottka, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the defendant: Portuguese Republic (represented by: P. Barros da Costa, M. Ramos, S. Jaulino, A. Pimenta and A. Rodrigues, acting as Agents, and by N. Mimoso Ruiz and G. Oliveira e Costa, lawyers)

Re:

By its action under Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks the annulment of Commission Decision C(2021) 5302 final of 16 July 2021 on State aid SA.57369 (2020/N) – Portugal – Rescue aid to TAP SGPS.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Dismisses the action;










2.


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










3.


Orders the Portuguese Republic to bear its own costs.






(1)  
            OJ C 37, 24.1.2022.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/1754/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)