CELEX: C2004/262/101
Language: en
Date: 2004-10-23 00:00:00
Title: Case T-344/04: Action brought on 13 August 2004 by Stardust Marine S.A. against the Commission of the European Communities

23.10.2004   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 262/55
            
         Action brought on 13 August 2004 by Stardust Marine S.A. against the Commission of the European Communities
   (Case T-344/04)
   (2004/C 262/101)
   Language of the case: French
   An action against the Commission of the European Communities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 13 August 2004 by Stardust Marine S.A., established in Paris, represented by Bernard Vatier, lawyer.
   The applicant claims that the Court should:
   
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               Declare that European Commission Decision 2000/513/EC of 8 September 1999, which orders the French State to recover the alleged State aid of FRF 600 million from STARDUST, is vitiated by illegality, and that that illegality is of such a kind as to engage the Commission's liability under Article 288 of the EC Treaty;
            
         
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               Consequently, order the European Commission to pay to Stardust the sum of EUR 112 635 569.73 in damages, with statutory interest from the date of the present application;
            
         
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               Order that the forthcoming decision shall be provisionally enforceable;
            
         
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               Order the Commission to pay all the costs in the present action.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
   In support of its application, the applicant claims that the unlawful nature of Decision 2000/513/EC cannot be disputed, since that decision has already been annulled by judgment of the Court of Justice EC of 16 May 2002 in Case C-482/99. That unlawfulness is, the applicant submits, sufficient to engage the Commission's non-contractual liability under Article 288 EC. The applicant also claims that, even supposing that the decision at issue were a legislative act containing economic policy measures, the Commission would have infringed a superior rule of law protecting individuals by adopting a decision adversely affecting the applicant without legal or factual basis. Therefore, the applicant argues that the Commission is required to pay damages to it.
   As concerns the harm allegedly sustained, the applicant states that STARDUST was the subject of a court-supervised recovery scheme by judgment of the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris. The cessation of payments which led to that judgment is the direct consequence of the debt arising from the Commission's decision. The harm sustained is the amount of the deficit in STARDUST's assets.