Actions for damages and unlawful State Aids

Under EU law, State aids are in principle prohibited unless authorised by the European Commission. In cases where Member States grant a State aid to an undertaking without obtaining the prior authorization of the European Commission, competitors of the beneficiary of this unlawful State Aid may obtain damages for the financial harm they may suffer as a result of this Aid. Our former colleague Marc Barennes and Benjamin Cheynel, a référendaire with the Court of Justice of the European Union examine in a post published on the leading French legal think tank blog Le Club des juristes, two issues: firstly, under what conditions undertakings harmed by an unlawful State aid may obtain redress and, secondly, why the number of damage actions in the State aid field should increase in the coming years further to the Covid-19 Crisis. This post (in French) is available on the Club des juristes’s blog at this link.