Judgment of the General Court of 10 December 2010 - Ryanair v Commission
(Cases T-494/08 to T-500/08 and T-509/08) 1 (Access to documents - Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Documents relating to procedures for reviewing State aid - Implied refusals of access - Express refusals of access - Exception concerning protection of the purpose of inspections, investigations and audits - Duty to carry out a concrete, individual examination)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: Ryanair Ltd (Dublin, Ireland) (represented by: E. Vahida and I.-G. Metaxas-Maragkidis, lawyers)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: C. O'Reilly and P. Costa de Oliveira, Agents)
Re:
Applications for annulment of the Commission's implied decisions refusing to grant the applicant access to certain documents relating to procedures for reviewing State aid allegedly granted to the applicant by the operators of the airports of Aarhus (Denmark) (Case T-494/08), Alghero (Italy) (Case T-495/08), Berlin-Schönefeld (Germany) (Case T-496/08), Frankfurt-Hahn (Germany) (Case T-497/08), Lübeck-Blankensee (Germany) (Case T-498/08), Pau-Béarn (France) (Case T-499/08), Tampere-Pirkkala (Finland) (Case T-500/08) and Bratislava (Slovakia) (Case T-509/08), and, in the alternative, applications for annulment of the subsequent express decisions refusing access to those documents
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Orders Cases T-494/08, T-495/08, T-496/08, T-497/08, T-498/08, T-499/08, T-500/08 and T-509/08 to be joined for the purposes of the present judgment;
Declares the actions inadmissible in so far as they have been brought against the implied decisions to refuse access in Cases T-494/08, T-495/08, T-499/08, T-500/08 and T-509/08;
Declares that there is no longer any need to adjudicate on the actions in Cases T-496/08, T-497/08 and T-498/08 in so far as they have been brought against the implied decisions to refuse access;
Dismisses the remainder of the actions;
Orders Ryanair Ltd to pay the costs in Cases T-494/08, T-495/08, T-499/08, T-500/08 and T-509/08;
Orders the European Commission to bear its own costs in Cases T-496/08, T-497/08 and T-498/08 and to pay those incurred by Ryanair Ltd in those cases.
____________1 - OJ C 32, 7.2.2009.