Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Fifth Chamber) of 18 December 2008 – Componenta v Commission

(Case T-455/05)

State aid – Metallurgy sector – Acquisition of a shareholding held by an undertaking in a property company and repayment of a loan by that undertaking to the property company in consideration for an investment in that undertaking – Decision declaring the aid incompatible with the common market and ordering its recovery – Private investor test – Valuation of the shares in a property company – Valuation of the real property assets of a company – Duty to state the reasons for the decision – Finding of the Court of its own motion

1. Procedure – Application initiating proceedings – Formal requirements – Brief summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based (Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 44(1)(c)) (see paras 44-45)

2. State aid – Concept – Competence conferred on the Commission and the national court to classify a national measure as State aid – Limited discretion of the Commission (Art. 87(1) EC) (see para. 97)

3. Acts of the institutions – Statement of reasons – Obligation – Scope – Commission decision on State aid (Arts 87(1) EC and 253 EC) (see paras 98-100)

4. State aid – Administrative procedure – National measures implemented without having been notified – Faculty open to the Commission to issue a direction to the Member State concerned in order to obtain the information deemed by it to be necessary – Decision adopted by the Commission, without issuing a direction, on the basis of information regarded by it as fragmentary (Council Regulation No 659/1999, Art. 10) (see paras 105-108)

5. Acts of the institutions – Statement of reasons – Obligation – Scope – Correction of an error of reasoning during the proceedings before the Court – Not permissible (Art. 253 EC) (see para. 121)

Re:

Operative part

The Court:

1.Annuls Commission Decision 2006/900/EC of 20 October 2005 on the State Aid implemented by Finland for investment aid to Componenta Corporation;

2.Orders the Commission to bear its own costs and pay Componenta’s costs;

3.Orders the Republic of Finland to bear its own costs.