The General Court of the EU has dismissed the appeal filed by Brussels South Charleroi Airport (“BSCA”) against a 2014 Commission decision whereby Belgium was ordered to recover illegal State aid granted to BSCA.
In its decision, the Commission found that a series of measures adopted by the Belgian region, Wallonia, in favor of the BSCA constituted illegal State Aid within the meaning of EU Law. More precisely, Wallonia charged very low concession fees to BSCA as compared to what would have been charged by a private operator.
Based on the Commission’s decision, the measures were in breach of EU Law since the entry into force of the new Aviation Guidelines on 4 April 2014. As a consequence, the Commission (i) required Belgium to increase the fees of the concession to the level of what a private operator would have required in exchange for the measures in question; and (ii) ordered the recovery of the payments made after 4 April 2014. At the date of the Decision, the amount to be recovered reached approximately EUR 6 million. In the Commission’s view, the favorable treatment granted to BSCA has distorted competition vis à vis other airport operators, especially Brussels-National.
BSCA filed an action for annulment against this decision arguing that the Commission erred in law and in fact in several aspects of its assessment. By judgment of 25 January 2018, the General Court of the EU dismissed BSCA’s claims and upheld the Commission’s decision. The parties may now appeal the General Court’s judgment before the Court of Justice of the EU for a final ruling of the case.
