Damages Actions and State Aid: Time for Action at EU Level?
Following the State aid modernisation agenda in 2012, Member States have had more responsibilities than ever in ensuring compliance with State aid rules. The scope of the General Block Exemption Regulation has significantly expanded through increased thresholds and additional categories, marking a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade Católica Editora
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Market and Competition Law Review |
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| Online Access: | https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/mclawreview/article/view/11305 |
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| Summary: | Following the State aid modernisation agenda in 2012, Member States have had more responsibilities than ever in ensuring compliance with State aid rules. The scope of the General Block Exemption Regulation has significantly expanded through increased thresholds and additional categories, marking a steady momentum since then. The idea was to reduce the administrative burden for Member States, increase legal certainty for aid beneficiaries, and allow the Commission to focus on aid which is the most likely to have an impact on competition in the internal market. However, this process does not only bring positive consequences, as the risk of erroneous applications of the law has increased. In theory, private damages actions for failure to comply with State aid rules should gain in importance. In practice, the award of damages is exceptional and represents less than 1% of the private enforcement cases. The low attractivity of such action is likely to have unsatisfactory consequences on third parties’ rights, but also on State aid public enforcement and global discipline. This is largely due to the framework in place, which is limited and fragmented at best. After outlining the current system and its shortcomings, this article analyses whether inspiration can be drawn from the antitrust damages directive. Doing so, it formulates building blocks for a future (wider) regulatory initiative in the field of State aid.
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| ISSN: | 2184-0008 |