Action brought on 29 July 2011 - Altadis v Commission

(Case T-400/11)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Altadis, SA (Madrid, Spain) (represented by: J. Buendía Sierra, E. Abad Valdenebro, R. Calvo Salinero, and M. Muñoz de Juan, lawyers)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the General Court should:

admit and uphold the request for evidence;

admit and uphold the pleas for annulment contained in the application;

annul Article 1(1) of the contested decision in so far as it declares that Article 12(5) of the Texto Refundido de la Ley del Impuesto sobre Sociedades ('TRLIS') (consolidated text of the Law on Corporation Tax) contains elements of State aid when it applies to acquisitions of shareholdings entailing acquisition of control;

alternatively, annul Article 4 of the contested decision in so far as it makes the recovery order applicable to transactions completed prior to the publication in the Official Journal of the European Union of the final decision which is the subject-matter of this action;

alternatively, annul Article 1(1), and in the further alternative Article 4, of the contested decision in so far as they relate to transactions in Morocco;

order the Commission to pay the costs of these proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments

This action is brought against Commission Decision C(2010) 9566 of 12 January 2011 on the tax amortisation of financial goodwill for foreign shareholding acquisitions.

The pleas in law and main arguments are those already raised in Case T-399/11 Banco de Santander and Santusa Holding v Commission.

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