Order of the General Court (First Chamber) of 21 January 2011 – Vtesse Networks v Commission

(Case T-54/07)

Application for annulment – State aid – Telecommunications – Tax on non-domestic property of undertakings in the United Kingdom – Decision finding that the measure at issue does not constitute aid – No individual concern – Inadmissibility

1.                     Procedure – Intervention – Extent of the intervener’s procedural rights linked to the date on which the application to intervene was made (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 116(6)) (see para. 51)

2.                     Actions for annulment – Natural or legal persons – Measures of direct and individual concern to them – Commission decision closing a procedure on aid – Undertaking competing with the undertaking in receipt of the aid – Right to bring an action – Conditions (Arts 88(2) EC and 230, fourth para., EC) (see paras 88-90, 92-93, 95, 98)

Re:

APPLICATION for annulment in part of Commission Decision 2006/951/EC of 12 October 2006 on the United Kingdom’s application of the tax on non-domestic property to telecommunications infrastructure in the United Kingdom (No C 4/2005 (ex NN 57/2004, ex CP 26/2004)) (OJ 2006 L 383, p. 70).

Operative part

1. The application is dismissed as inadmissible.

2. Vtesse Networks Ltd is ordered to bear its own costs and pay the costs of the European Commission.

3. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, AboveNet Communications UK Ltd, Gamma Telecom Ltd, VTL (UK) Ltd and British Telecommunications plc are ordered to bear their own costs.