Action brought on 14 March 2023 – Merlin and Others v Commission

(Case T-141/23)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicants: Laurent Merlin (Equihen-Plage, France) and the 27 other applicants (represented by: F.-C. Laprévote and F. de Bure, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicants claim that the Court should:

find, under Article 265 TFEU, that the Commission’s failure to decide on the alleged existence of State aid on the basis of the information provided by the applicants constitutes a failure to act;

order the Commission to take a decision within two months on the basis of Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 ¹ of 13 July 2015 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

order the Commission to pay all the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicants rely on a single plea in law. They submit that the Commission unlawfully failed to act in so far as it did not adopt the decision provided for under Article 4 of Regulation 2015/1589 following the preliminary examination of the information provided in the context of the complaints addressed to it by the applicants as regards allegedly unlawful State aid granted by the Netherlands authorities in favour of owners of sea fishing vessels.

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¹ Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 of 13 July 2015 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (OJ 2015 L 248, p. 9).