Notice for the OJ

 

Action brought on 8 October 2003 by Deutsche Post AG and Securicor Omega Express Limited against the Commission of the European Communities

    

    (Case T-343/03)

    Language of the case: German

An action against the Commission of the European Communities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 8 October 2003 by Deutsche Post AG, Bonn (Germany) and Securicor Omega Express Limited, Sutton (United Kingdom), represented by T. Lübbig, lawyer.

The applicants claim that the Court should:

(annul the Decision of the Commission of the European Communities of 27 May 2003 on State aid N 784/2002 ( United Kingdom, "Government rural network support funding, debt payment funding and rolling working capital loan to Post Office Limited", document number C(2003) 1652 final, in so far as it terminates the State aid complaint procedure initiated by the first applicant's letter of 3 December 2002;

(order the Commission of the European Communities to pay the costs of the proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments:

By letter of 3 December 2002, the applicants requested the Commission to investigate the costs and earnings structures of the postal undertaking Consignia plc (Royal Mail Group plc) as regards parcels and express parcel service as to the existence of a cross-subsidy.

The applicants object to the termination by means of the contested decision of the State aid complaint procedure which they initiated. In particular, the applicants complain that, by that contested approval decision, the Commission terminated its State aid investigation in respect of the subject of the complaint while it was still at a preliminary stage.

The applicants take the view that if there had been an appropriate and comprehensive examination of the observations which the applicants submitted under the complaint procedure, the Commission would have encountered serious problems and doubts as to the compatibility with the common market of the facts put forward in the complaint and would have had to initiate a full assessment. In effect, the applicants' complaint demonstrates in detail that the parcel service of the United Kingdom's Post is not achieving the coverage of costs required under the Commission's Decision of 19 June 2002 on measures implemented by the Federal Republic of Germany for Deutsche Post AG ¹ and that therefore the suspicion of a cross-subsidy ( described in the Deutsche Post Decision as inadmissible State aid ( is founded as regards parcel services.

The applicants maintain that the parcel services which form the subject-matter of the applicants' complaint are mentioned in the Commission's Decision only in passing and without separate consideration of individual spheres of activity. The Commission did not examine whether "Parcel Services" constitute the provision of a universal parcel service or, for example, the handling of express parcels and, accordingly, an area of competition which has long since been liberalised. In the light of the allegations made by the applicants of cross-subsidies for parcels and express parcel operations, the Decision is therefore vitiated by a failure to state reasons (infringement of Article 253 EC).

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¹ - (OJ L 247, p. 27.