Case C-823/25: Action brought on 12 December 2025 – European Commission v Kingdom of the Netherlands
Date: 2025-12-12
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: Friesland, Groningen, Overijssel, award of contract, carriage of passengers, negotiated contract, provision of services, rail transport, service concession, services of general interest








C_202600636EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/636


9.2.2026






Action brought on 12 December 2025 – European Commission v Kingdom of the Netherlands


(Case C-823/25)

(C/2026/636)
Language of the case: Dutch

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: A. Steiblytė, M. ter Haar and K. Walkerová, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Kingdom of the Netherlands

Form of order sought







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to find that the Netherlands, by awarding a contract for the provision of public rail passenger transport services to Nederlandse Spoorwegen by direct award on 21 December 2023, with effect from 1 January 2025, has infringed its obligations pursuant to Article 5(3) and Article 5(6) in conjunction with Article 8(2)(iii) of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) Nos 1191/69 and 1107/70, (1) and by failing to sufficiently demonstrate that there is a market failure and by not duly taking into account the market supply for the routes between Groningen and Zwolle and between Leeuwarden and Zwolle when determining the scope of the public service obligations imposed under that contract, has infringed its obligations pursuant to Article 2a(1) in conjunction with Article 2(e) of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007;










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order the Kingdom of the Netherlands to pay the costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

First plea: by awarding the concession for the operation of public passenger transport services on the Dutch main rail network to Nederlandse Spoorwegen by direct award on 21 December 2023 without objective justification for that long period between the award and the commencement of services from 1 January 2025, the Netherlands circumvented the prohibition on direct awards in force since 25 December 2023 pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 and infringed Article 5(3) and (6) in conjunction with Article 8(2)(iii) of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007.
Second plea in law, first part: by awarding the concession without carrying out a market analysis or without having gathered appropriate evidence of market failure, the Netherlands awarded a public service contract without providing the required evidence, first, that it was necessary to set public service obligations (since the market operators were not able to meet the service needs, or even part thereof, without a public service obligation) and, second, that the scope and specifications of the concession were proportionate to a real public service need, thereby committing a manifest error of assessment in establishing the public service obligation, in breach of Article 2a(1) in conjunction with Article 2(e) of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007.
Second plea in law, second part: by including in the concession the routes between Groningen and Zwolle and between Leeuwarden and Zwolle, even though Arriva proposed to provide rail passenger services on those routes on the basis of open access, the Netherlands infringed Article 2a(1), in conjunction with Article 2(e), of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007.


(1)  
            OJ 2007 L 315, p. 1.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/636/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)