Case C-174/25 P: Appeal brought on 28 February 2025 by Durie – Trading e Serviços Internacionais; Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira); Starboard, Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira); Caledonian – Serviços Internacionais, Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira) e Fuchinvest Real Estate Participações, Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira) against the judgment delivered by the General Court (Fifth Chamber) on 18 December 2024 in the joined cases T-702/22,T-704/22,T-705/22 and T-710/22 to T-712/22, TA v Commission (Zona Franca da Madeira)
Date: 2025-02-28
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Madeira, Portugal, State aid, aid to undertakings, control of State aid, corporation tax, regional aid, reimbursement of aid, tax exemption, tax relief








C_202502186EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/2186


22.4.2025






Appeal brought on 28 February 2025 by Durie – Trading e Serviços Internacionais; Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira); Starboard, Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira); Caledonian – Serviços Internacionais, Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira) e Fuchinvest Real Estate Participações, Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira) against the judgment delivered by the General Court (Fifth Chamber) on 18 December 2024 in the joined cases T-702/22, T-704/22, T-705/22 and T-710/22 to T-712/22, TA v Commission (Zona Franca da Madeira)


(Case C-174/25 P)

(C/2025/2186)
Language of the case: Portuguese

Parties


Appellants:

Durie – Trading e Serviços Internacionais, Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira),
Starboard, Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira),
Caledonian – Serviços Internacionais, Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira),
Fuchinvest Real Estate Participações, Unipessoal, Lda (Zona Franca da Madeira) (represented by: A. I. Ferreira Correia and R. da Palma Borges, advogados)

Other party to the proceedings: European Commission

Form of order sought

The appellants claim that the Court should:






—


Grant the present appeal, setting aside the judgment under appeal and, consequently, grant the claim formulated in the applications regarding annulment of Decision (EU) 2022/1414 of the European Commission (1) of 4/12/2020 as regards Articles 1 and 4, on the ground of failure to state reasons or error of fact or of law; and










—


Order the European Commission to pay all the costs.





Grounds of appeal and main arguments

In support of their appeal, the appellants put forward four grounds of appeal:

First ground of appeal, alleging failure to comply with the obligation to state reasons in breach of Article 296 TFEU;

Second ground of appeal, alleging an error of law regarding distortion of the status of authorisation decisions and breach of the principles of legality and legal certainty;

Third ground of appeal, alleging an error on the ground of infringement of Article 107(3) TFEU and Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 [TFEU] (OJ 2014 L 187, p. 1) and distortion of the 2007 Guidelines as regards the declaration of incompatibility of benefits which do not exceed the quantitative limits laid down in those Guidelines and in that regulation;

Fourth ground of appeal, alleging errors of law concerning the plea of breach of the EU law general principles of legal certainty, protection of legitimate expectations and the legality.


(1)  Commission Decision (EU) 2022/1414 of 4 December 2020 on aid scheme SA.21259 (2018/C) (ex 2018/NN) implemented by Portugal for Zona Franca da Madeira (ZFM) – Regime III (OJ 2022 L 217, p. 49-87.)


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/2186/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)