Action brought on 22 December 2008 - Deutsche Post v Commission

(Case T-570/08)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicant: Deutsche Post AG (Bonn, Germany) (represented by: J. Sedemund and T. Lübbig, lawyers)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

Annul the decision of the Commission of the European Communities of 30 October 2008 concerning the information injunction in the proceedings 'State aid C-36/2007 - State aid to Deutsche Post AG';

order the defendant to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The action is directed against the decision of the Commission of the European Communities (C (2008) 6468) of 30 October 2008 by which, in State aid procedure C 36/2007 (ex NN 25/2007), the Commission required Germany, pursuant to Article 10(3) of Regulation (EC) No 659/1999, ¹ to send all the documents, information and data required in order to assess the costs and revenues of Deutsche Post in the period from 1989 to 2007.

The applicant raises four pleas in law.

In the first, second and third pleas, the applicant submits that the decision should be annulled on the grounds of an infringement of essential rules as to form and procedure, in that

the requirements as to the valid setting of a time-limit and as to a 'reminder, allowing an appropriate additional period' in accordance with Articles 5(2) and 10(3) of Regulation No 659/1999 were not satisfied;

the information injunction exhibits serious failings in regard to the obligation to state reasons and thus infringes Article 253 EC;

the Commission failed, contrary to Articles 287 EC and 10 EC, to give the Federal Government and the applicant an opportunity to submit comments on the protection of the applicant's business secrets.

By its fourth plea in law, the applicant claims that the contested decision should, moreover, be annulled on the grounds of an infringement of substantive Community law, because the use of the requested data concerning costs and revenues in respect of the period from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2007 for the purposes of examining the 'financial compensation' conflicts with the 2005 Community Framework and with the division of powers between Member States and the Commission; infringes Articles 86(2) EC and 87(1) EC in conjunction with the principles of proportionality, legal certainty and the Community-law prohibition of discrimination; and, finally, is manifestly inappropriate for the assessment in terms of State-aid law of pension and liability provisions.

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¹ - Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article [88 EC] (OJ 1999 L 83, p. 1).