The Court of Justice of the European Union has set aside a judgment annulling the Commission’s approval of €3.4 billion in Dutch pandemic aid to KLM, while returning unresolved parts of Ryanair’s challenge to the General Court.
The Netherlands granted KLM a state-backed bank loan and a state loan in 2020 to address pandemic-related liquidity pressure. After an earlier approval was annulled for inadequate reasoning, the Commission adopted a second decision identifying KLM and its subsidiaries as the measure’s sole beneficiaries. The General Court annulled that decision as well, finding that Air France and the Air France-KLM holding company should also have been treated as beneficiaries.
The Court of Justice ruled on 5 November that the General Court used the correct legal framework, including the concept of an economic unit, but applied it incorrectly. It had substituted its own assessment of the evidence for the Commission’s without showing that the Commission’s conclusion was implausible or manifestly wrong.
In particular, the General Court reweighted the same facts and took a different view of the degree of integration within the group. That was insufficient to displace the Commission’s assessment that Air France and KLM retained considerable economic autonomy despite their corporate links.
The Court dismissed the part of Ryanair’s action resolved by that reasoning. Other pleas were not determined at first instance, however, and the appellate court found that the record did not permit a final ruling on them. The case therefore returns to the General Court, which must decide those remaining claims consistently with the appellate judgment.
Official Court of Justice release and judgment link
