Case T‑253/12

(publication by extracts)

Hammar Nordic Plugg AB

v

European Commission

(State aid — Sale and leasing of plots of land and a production site — Decision declaring the aid incompatible with the internal market and ordering recovery thereof — Lack of a tendering procedure — Determination of the market price — Private investor test — Effect on trade between Member States)

Summary — Judgment of the General Court (Seventh Chamber), 28 October 2015

1.      State aid — Concept — Implementation of the private investor test — Discretion of the Commission — Judicial review — Limits

(Arts 107(1) TFEU and 108(2) TFEU)

2.      State aid — Examination by the Commission — Administrative procedure — Discretion of the Commission — Guidelines on State aid elements in sales of land and buildings by public authorities— Self-limitation on the Commission’s discretion

(Art. 107(3) TFEU; Commission Notice 97/C 209/3)

3.      Actions for annulment — Actionable measures — Concept — Acts producing legal effects —Commission decision refusing to open the formal investigation procedure for State aid under Article 108(2) TFEU — Included

(Arts 107(1) TFEU, 108(2) TFEU and 263, sixth para., TFEU)

1.      See the text of the decision.

(see para. 32)

2.      In the area of State aid, the Commission is bound by the guidelines and communications that it adopts, in so far as they do not depart from the rules in the TFEU and are accepted by the Member States. Accordingly, in the case of the sale of a building having involved the use of State resources, carried out in the absence of an open and unconditional tendering procedure, the Commission is entitled to rely on assessments available to it, in accordance with paragraph 2(a) of the Commission Communication on State aid elements in sales of land and buildings by public authorities.

(see paras 40, 41)

3.      If a Commission decision finds that a measure does not constitute State aid, within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU without initiating the formal investigation procedure provided for in Article 108(2) TFEU and if an interested party seeks to safeguard its procedural rights under the same provision, that party must bring an action to overturn that decision before the General Court within the time-limit prescribed in the fifth paragraph of Article 263 TFEU.

(see para. 62)