Judgment of the General Court of 15 November 2018 –Banco Santander and Santusa v Commission

(Case T-399/11 RENV) ¹

(State aid — Provisions concerning corporate tax allowing undertakings which are tax resident in Spain to amortise the goodwill resulting from the acquisition of shareholdings in undertakings which are tax resident abroad — Decision declaring the aid to be incompatible with the internal market and ordering its recovery — Concept of State aid — Selectivity — Reference system — Derogation — Difference in treatment — Justification of the difference in treatment — Undertakings benefiting from the measure — Legitimate expectations)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicants: Banco Santander, SA (Santander, Spain) and Santusa Holding, SL (Boadilla del Monte, Spain) (represented by: J. Buendía Sierra, E. Abad Valdenebro, R. Calvo Salinero and A. Lamadrid de Pablo, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: R. Lyal, B. Stromsky, C. Urraca Caviedes and P. Němečková, acting as Agents)

Interveners in support of the applicants: Federal Republic of Germany (represented by: T. Henze, acting as Agent), Ireland (represented by: initially, G. Hodge and E. Creedon, and, subsequently, G. Hodge and M. Browne, acting as Agents) and Kingdom of Spain (represented by: M. Sampol Pucurull, acting as Agent)

Re:

Application based on Article 263 TFEU and seeking annulment of Article 1(1) and Article 4 of Commission Decision 2011/282/EU of 12 January 2011 on the tax amortisation of financial goodwill for foreign shareholding acquisitions No C 45/07 (ex NN 51/07, ex CP 9/07) implemented by Spain (OJ 2011 L 135, p. 1).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders Banco Santander, SA and Santusa Holding, SL to bear their own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission;

Orders the Federal Republic of Germany, Ireland and the Kingdom of Spain to bear their own respective costs.

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¹ OJ C 282, 24.9.2011.