Judgment of the General Court of 15 November 2018 — Banco Santander v Commission

(Case T-227/10) 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

Applicant: Banco Santander, SA (Santander, Spain) (represented by: initially, J. Buendía Sierra, E. Abad Valdenebro, M. Muñoz de Juan and R. Calvo Salinero, and, subsequently, J. Buendía Sierra, E. Abad Valdenebro, R. Calvo Salinero and A. Lamadrid de Pablo, lawyers)

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

Re:

Application based on Article 263 TFEU and seeking annulment of Article 1(1) of Commission Decision 2011/5/EC of 28 October 2009 on the tax amortisation of financial goodwill for foreign shareholding acquisitions C 45/07 (ex NN 51/07, ex CP 9/07) implemented by Spain (OJ 2011 L 7, p. 48) and, in the alternative, annulment of Article 4 of that decision.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders Banco Santander, SA to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission.

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¹ OJ C 195, 17.7.2010.