Judgment of the General Court First Chamber, 10 April 2024, Danske Slagtermestre v Commission, T‑486/18 RENV

• Date: 10 April 2024
• Year: 2024

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In accordance with the principle of effectiveness, where the supplier required to pay unlawful taxes

has passed them on directly to a final consumer, who has ultimately unduly borne that additional

economic burden, the latter must have the possibility of obtaining reimbursement from the supplier

and, if such reimbursement were to prove impossible or excessively difficult to obtain, he or she

should be able to direct his or her application for reimbursement to the Member State concerned

directly.

In the present case, as the final consumer is prevented from relying on the incompatibility of the tax

with the provisions of Directive 2008/118 in the context of an action for reimbursement brought

against its supplier, due to the absence of direct horizontal effect of that directive, reimbursement of

that tax from that supplier is in actual fact legally impossible. However, the national legislation allows

final consumers to bring an action for recovery of sums paid but not due only against the supplier,

without the possibility of applying directly to the Member State concerned, which therefore infringes

the principle of effectiveness.

II. COMPETITION

1. STATE AID

Judgment of the General Court (First Chamber), 10 April 2024, Danske Slagtermestre v

Commission, T‑486/18 RENV

Link to the full text of the judgment

State aid – Contributions scheme for the collection of waste water – Complaint from a competitor –

Decision finding no State aid at the end of the preliminary examination stage – Requirement of

impartiality – Objective impartiality – Concept of ‘advantage’ – Market economy operator principle – Ex

ante incremental profitability analysis – Commission Notice on the notion of State aid

The General Court, hearing the case on referral back from the Court of Justice, annuls the decision of

the European Commission

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by which the latter found that the Danish legislation regarding fees

payable to waste water treatment operators did not give rise to State aid in favour of large

slaughterhouses. In that context, the General Court provides clarification regarding, first, the

requirement of impartiality on the part of the Commission and, second, the application of the market

economy operator principle in a context such as that of the present case. On the second point, the

Court draws attention, in addition, to the obligation on the Commission to comply with the criteria

laid down in its Notice on the notion of State aid.

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By a law adopted in 2013

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(‘the 2013 law’), Denmark replaced the system under which there was a

single charge per cubic metre of water for all water consumers connected to the same waste water

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Commission Decision C(2018) 2259 final of 19 April 2018 relating to State aid SA.37433 (2017/FC) – Denmark (‘the contested decision’).

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Commission Notice on the notion of State aid as referred to in Article 107(1) [TFEU] (OJ 2016 C 262, p. 1).

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Law No 902/2013 amending the law establishing the rules relating to contributions payable to waste water treatment operators (structure of

the contributions for the drainage of waste water, authorising special contributions for the treatment of particularly polluted waste water,

etc.).