Action brought on 24 November 2025 by Masserud Utvikling AS against the EFTA Surveillance Authority (Case E-27/25)
Date: 2025-11-24
Institutions: EFTA Court
Subjects: European Economic Area, Norway, State aid, control of State aid, limitation of legal proceedings, municipality, real property, reimbursement of aid, sale, transfer of property








C_202600508EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/508


22.1.2026






Action brought on 24 November 2025 by Masserud Utvikling AS against the EFTA Surveillance Authority
(Case E-27/25)
(C/2026/508)

An action against the EFTA Surveillance Authority was brought before the EFTA Court on 24 November 2025 by Masserud Utvikling AS, Hvamstubben 11, 2013 Skjetten, Norway, represented by attorney-at-law Fredrik Lilleaas Ellingsen, Advokatfirmaet Selmer AS, Oslo, Norway.
Masserud Utvikling AS, requests that the EFTA Court:






1.


Annul EFTA Surveillance Authority’s Decision of 11 June 2025 No 090/25/COL in part, in relation to Article 2, and subsequently 3, 4 and 5; and










2.


Order the EFTA Surveillance Authority to pay the Applicant’s costs and expenses in connection with these proceedings.





Legal and factual background and pleas in law adduced in support:







—


Masserud Utvikling AS (Masserud) is a limited liability company which develops and sells real estate. It is a single purpose entity which has only been involved in the development of the residential area, Masserud Gaard, located in Lørenskog. The company is fully owned by Olavsgaard Eiendom AS, which is a part of the real estate group Olavsgaard Gruppen AS.










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Lørenskog is a Norwegian municipality, located approximately 20 km east of Oslo. The Municipality has around 46 000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest municipality in the Oslo region.










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Decision No 090/25/COL of 11 June 2025 (‘the contested decision’), addressed to the Kingdom of Norway, concluded that the granting of the public land free of charge to Masserud, resulting from Lørenskog municipality’s failure to enforce its claim under the sale agreement with Masserud of January 2014, entails unlawful State aid.










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The application follows a complaint received by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) on 8 August 2022 from Lørenskog municipality alleging that it had granted unlawful State aid to Masserud since it forgot to claim payment from Masserud for the sale of property before the claim became time-barred. The Municipality requested ESA to open a formal investigation.










—


The applicant seeks the annulment of the contested decision in part and bases its application on the following pleas:






—


ESA made a manifest error of assessment in concluding that the measure constituted State aid, as Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement cannot be interpreted in such a way that claims time-barred as a result of the application of national limitation rules will be regarded as State aid;










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The measure is not attributable to the State;










—


The measure is not selective;










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The applicant did not obtain an advantage due to a claim being time-barred;










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There is no effect on trade.














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The pleas put forward are inter alia based on the following arguments:






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The nature of the limitation rules must be taken into account when interpreting whether the measure constitutes State aid;










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The State aid rules cannot be interpreted in a manner that extents the concept of an advantage to include claims time-barred under national limitation rules;










—


Characterising time-barred claims as State aid would undermine the legal certainty that limitation periods are designed to provide, which is neither the purpose nor the intended effect of Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement.










ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/508/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)