Abstract
The General Court issued its first two judgements on the application of the SGEI Framework in the postal sector in the Ceská Pošta and Post Danmark cases. This article reviews both the legal assessment and the economic analysis of the Court in the two judgments and looks at the implications for State aid assessment of USO (and/or other postal SGEIs) financing in the future.
The information and views set out in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Commission
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Notes
- 1.
General Court, judgment of 15 October 2020, case T-316/18, První novinová společnost v Commission, ECLI:EU:T:2020:489.
- 2.
C(2018) 753 final of 19 February 2018, State aid SA.45281 and State aid SA.44859.
- 3.
See §25 SGEI Framework, “Under the net avoided cost methodology, the net cost necessary, or expected to be necessary, to discharge the public service obligations is calculated as the difference between the net cost for the provider of operating with the public service obligation and the net cost or profit for the same provider of operating without that obligation”.
- 4.
C(2018) 3169 final of 28 May 2018, SA.47707 (2018/N).
- 5.
General Court, judgment of 5 May 2021, case T-561/18, ITD and Danske Fragtmænd v Commission, ECLI:EU:T:2021:240.
- 6.
Case T-316/18, p. 106.
- 7.
Ibidem, p. 60.
- 8.
The procedure had in fact involved a first notification (30 July 2015) of the proposed aid, that was then withdrawn by the Czech authorities on 29 April 2016; a subsequent first pre-notification on 29 April 2016, a second pre-notification on 28 July 2017 and a (final) notification on 18 December 2017.
- 9.
Case T-316/18, p. 120.
- 10.
Ibidem, p. 141.
- 11.
Case T-561/18, p. 63.
- 12.
General Court, judgment of 28 March 2012, Ryanair v Commission, case T-123/09, EU:T:2012:164, p. 168.
- 13.
General Court, judgment of 15 November 2018, T-793/14, Tempus Energy, EU:T:2018:790.
- 14.
Case T-561/18, p. 75.
- 15.
See General Court, judgment of 9 October 2018, case T-884/16, Multiconnect v Commission, EU:T:2018:665, p. 37.
- 16.
Case T-316/18, p. 327.
- 17.
Case T-561/18, p. 164.
- 18.
Article 106(2): “Undertakings entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest (…) shall be subject to the rules contained in the Treaties, in particular to the rules on competition, in so far as the application of such rules does not obstruct the performance, in law or in fact, of the particular tasks assigned to them. The development of trade must not be affected to such an extent as would be contrary to the interests of the Union”.
- 19.
Ibidem, p. 165.
- 20.
Case T-125/12, Viasat Broadcasting UK v Commission, EU:T:2015:687, pp. 87–88.
- 21.
Case T-561/18, p. 114.
- 22.
Case T-561/18, p. 123.
- 23.
§§44–46 2012 SGEI Framework.
- 24.
§18 2012 SGEI Framework.
- 25.
Notifications of USO compensations have so far concerned incumbents that have always delivered the USO and not postal operators that would start delivering it.
- 26.
Case T-316/18, p. 198.
- 27.
Case T-561/18, p. 294.
- 28.
§25 2012 SGEI Framework.
- 29.
Part B of Annex I to Directive 2008/6/EC of 20 February 2008 amending Directive 97/67/EC with regard to the full accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services, OJ L 52, 27.2.2008, p.3.
- 30.
Ibidem, p. 110.
- 31.
Case T-316/18, p. 312.
- 32.
Case T-561/18, p. 155.
- 33.
Ibidem, p. 157.
- 34.
Ibidem, p. 146.
- 35.
Ibidem, p. 142.
- 36.
Case T-316/18, p. 181.
- 37.
Case T-316/18, p. 187.
- 38.
Case T-561/18, p. 170–173.
- 39.
The T-561/18 judgment has been appealed before the Court of Justice (case C-442/21P).
- 40.
Ibidem, p. 173.
References
Council. (2015). Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 of 13 July 2015 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 TFEU, OJ L 248, 24.9.2015, p. 9.
Frontier Economics. (2013). Study on the principles used to calculate the net costs of the postal USO.
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Fratini, A., Chovino, M. (2023). The First Tests of the SGEI Framework in the Postal Sector: Takeaways from the Judgements in the Česká pošta and Post Danmark Cases. In: Parcu, P.L., Brennan, T.J., Glass, V. (eds) The Postal and Delivery Contribution in Hard Times. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11413-7_5
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