Case C-267/24, Кanevi Komers DS: Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 23 October 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Administrativen sad – Varna – Bulgaria) – Kanevi Komers DS EOOD v Zamestnik izpalnitelen direktor na Darzhaven fond Zemedelie (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Agriculture – Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – Direct support schemes – Delegated Regulation (EU) No 640/2014 – Article 15(1) – Exceptions from the application of administrative penalties – Incorrect aid application – Withdrawal of such an application – Notification to the competent national authorities – Administrative penalties in cases of over-declaration of areas – Penalties under Article 19a of Delegated Regulation No 640/2014 – Applicability of that article following the repeal of Delegated Regulation No 640/2014)
Date: 2025-10-23
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU direct payments, administrative sanction, agricultural land, aid per hectare, aid to agriculture, eligibility criteria, equal treatment, principle of legal certainty, principle of proportionality, single payment scheme








C_202506481EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/6481


15.12.2025






Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 23 October 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Administrativen sad – Varna – Bulgaria) – Kanevi Komers DS EOOD v Zamestnik izpalnitelen direktor na Darzhaven fond ‘Zemedelie’
               


(Case C-267/24,
                (1)
Кanevi Komers DS)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Agriculture - Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - Direct support schemes - Delegated Regulation (EU) No 640/2014 - Article 15(1) - Exceptions from the application of administrative penalties - Incorrect aid application - Withdrawal of such an application - Notification to the competent national authorities - Administrative penalties in cases of over-declaration of areas - Penalties under Article 19a of Delegated Regulation No 640/2014 - Applicability of that article following the repeal of Delegated Regulation No 640/2014)
(C/2025/6481)
Language of the case: Bulgarian

Referring court

Administrativen sad – Varna

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Kanevi Komers DS EOOD

Defendant: Zamestnik izpalnitelen direktor na Darzhaven fond ‘Zemedelie’
         

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 15(1) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 640/2014 of 11 March 2014 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the integrated administration and control system and conditions for refusal or withdrawal of payments and administrative penalties applicable to direct payments, rural development support and cross compliance, as amended by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1393 of 4 May 2016,
must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which requires aid applicants to inform the competent national authority of any error in or amendment to the aid application or payment claim solely by means of a dedicated IT platform, provided that the objectives pursued by the EU legislation concerned and the general principles of EU law, in particular the principles of proportionality and of legal certainty, are observed.










2.


Article 15(1) of Delegated Regulation No 640/2014, as amended by Delegated Regulation 2016/1393,
must be interpreted as meaning that, first, the application of administrative penalties in the event of an incorrect aid application or payment claim requires the competent national authority to show that the two conditions set out therein are not satisfied, which is to be done, subject to the principles of equivalence and effectiveness, in compliance with the ways in which evidence is to be elicited, the conditions governing the admissibility of evidence, the principles governing the assessment of the probative value of the evidence adduced and also the requisite standard of proof laid down by national law, and, second, that provision allows a beneficiary to amend or withdraw the aid application or payment claim so long as the beneficiary has not been informed that the competent authority has carried out a check or found any non-compliance in the application or claim.










3.


Article 15(1) of Delegated Regulation No 640/2014, as amended by Delegated Regulation 2016/1393,
must be interpreted as precluding, first, a national provision under which applicants for support may not withdraw their application if they have been the subject of an on-the-spot check and informed of any non-compliance, limited solely to the areas and/or animals concerned by the application, and, second, a practice of the competent national authority whereby aid beneficiaries are not informed of on-the-spot checks or of the outcome thereof.






(1)  OJ C, C/2024/4081.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/6481/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)