By D. Karampelas
The ECJ case is a rather demanding one, requiring a great amount of expertise from the judges and the agents from both sides. We hereby present the case:
“A French telecommunications’ company has been operating for many years in the French telecommunications’ market, firstly as a state company until its privatization. The French government remained a significant shareholder (49%) and the company continued to operate normally, till the appearance of a German competitive company, which, thanks to its attractive offers and packages, managed to be established on the French market, threatening the French company, which, and due to prior imprudent management, reached the brink of bankruptcy. The French government, in order to support it, granted the French company a loan with a fixed interest rate, long repayment time and a strictly defined restoration plan. Furthermore, the French Government’s decided to grant licenses of operation of telecommunication services to a total of only five companies, regardless of their origin, with specific criteria. Nonetheless, already many telecommunications companies of other Member States were operating or planning to expand their operation in the French market.
Finally the case appeared before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice, which has to answer to the following issues:
(a) Whether this loan falls under the term of “state aid” prohibited by Article 107 TFEU or not.
(b) Whether the “numerous clausus” of operators constitutes a violation of Article 56 TFEU on the freedom to provide services within the internal market.
(c) Whether the incorporation into the French law of the maximum harmonization directives relating to the protection of consumer rights and their “de facto” implementation, granted that the above generated system of only 5 telecom-operators led to the establishment of “cartel practices” resulted in the rise of the values in correspondence to the offered services.” As of now, the Applicants seem to gain a bit more ground over the Defendants. The deliberations of the judges will make the final decision.
