29.3.2014

Official Journal of the European Union

C 93/17

(Case C-69/13) (<span class="super">1</span>)

(Request for a preliminary ruling - State aid - Subsidised purchase or renting of digital decoders - Commission decision declaring an aid scheme unlawful and incompatible with the internal market - Recovery - Quantification of the amount to be recovered - Role of the national court - Taking into consideration by the national court of the positions of the Commission in the enforcement of its decision - Principle of cooperation in good faith)

2014/C 93/27

Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Mediaset SpA

Defendant: Ministero dello Sviluppo economico

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Tribunale civile di Roma — Recovery of unlawful State aid — Quantification of the amount to be recovered — Commission decision laying down criteria for determining that amount — Judgment of the Court recognising that the national court has the power to assess whether the criteria laid down by the Commission are appropriate — Extent of the national court’s discretion.

Operative part of the judgment

1.Although, in order to ensure that a European Commission decision declaring an aid scheme unlawful and incompatible with the internal market and ordering the recovery of the aid in question, but not identifying the individual recipients of that aid and not determining the precise amounts to be recovered is executed, the national court is bound by that decision, it is not, however, bound by the positions adopted by that institution in the execution of that decision. Nevertheless, under the principle of cooperation in good faith laid down in Article 4(3) TEU, the national court must take the statements of position into account as a factor in the assessment of the dispute before it.

2.The national court, when determining the exact amounts of aid to be recovered and where the European Commission, in its decision declaring an aid scheme unlawful and incompatible with the internal market, has not identified the individual recipients of the aid in question or determined the precise amounts to be repaid, may conclude, without calling into question the validity of the European Commission’s decision or the obligation to repay the aid in question, that the amount of aid to be repaid is equal to zero where that follows from the calculations made on the basis of all the relevant information of which it has been made aware.

(<span class="note">1</span>) OJ C 147, 25.5.2013.