2008 and 2009 EU Competition Law and Sector-Specific Regulatory Case Law Developments with a Nexus to Poland

Abstract

The 2008 issue of YARS contained an overview of EU law developments in the period of time from 2004 to 2007. This overview covers the years 2008-2009. It confirms that State aid cases remained numerous (6 in total) and that the Commission’s enforcement activities in the area of State aid control continued at a similar pace as before. With respect to other areas of competition law and policy, the overall picture shows a relatively high level of scrutiny in mergers (5) and antitrust cases or inquiries (2). Moreover, EU Courts adopted several decisions in Polish cases, notably in the regulatory field (electronic communications) and State aid control (partial annulment in Huta Czestochowa (Operator) as well as the rejection of a request for interim measures in Technologie Buczek). The regulatory court cases show the Commission’s consistency in pursuing Member States in their failure to implement or to correctly implement the EU Electronic Communications package. In the state aid related Huta Czestochowa (Operator) judgement, the General Court (GC, formerly the Court of First Instance, CFI) partially annulled the scrutinised Commission decision since the Commission failed to identify the actual benefit related to the receipt of the aid in question. The jury is still out in the case concerning Technologie Buczek because the interim measures judgement says little about the potential outcome of the pending main appeals.