Appeal Rulings in the Case of the German “Sanierungsklausel

On 28 June 2018  the European Court of Justice handed down all-in-all four rulings by which it decided on the appeals lodged against the first instance judgments of the EU General Court in the case concerning the German “Sanierungsklausel” (see Cases C – 219/16 P, C – 209/16 P, C – 208/16 P and C – 203/16 P).

Already in 2011 the EU Commission had decided that the “Sanierungsklausel” introduced in the German Corporate Tax Act as Sub-Section 1a to Section 8c constituted a State aid within the meaning of Article 107 (1) TFEU, which was incompatible with EU law. Fiscal and EU law experts had widely criticised this decision that was nonetheless confirmed by the EU General Court in 2016. The European Court of Justice, by its rulings of 28 June 2018  annulled both the judgments of the General Court as well as the Commission decision of 2011.

Dr. Andreas Bartosch will provide an analysis of these rulings at the Annual Autumn Forum of the European State aid Law Institute on 30 November 2018.