Official Journal of the European Union

C series

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C/2024/7350

16.12.2024

(Case T-499/24)

(C/2024/7350)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Zdravniška Zbornica Slovenije (Ljubljana, Slovenia) (represented by: K. Zdolšek, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

—Annul the decision of the European Commission C(2024) 3755 final of 10 June 2024 in Case SA.45844 (2016/FC) concerning alleged state aid to Slovenian Public Healthcare Institutes (‘PHI’); and,

—Order the European Commission to pay its own costs and also those incurred by the applicant.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on three pleas in law.

1.First plea in law, alleging that the conclusion in the Commission’s decision that PHIs, when providing public healthcare services do not exercise activities of an economic nature and thus do not qualify as undertakings within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU is based on inaccurate and incomplete facts and on the incorrect legal categorisation of those facts that amount to the infringement of Articles 107 and 108 of the TFEU.

2.Second plea in law, alleging that the conclusion in the Commission’s Decision that the funding on the basis of the contested measures was only used to fund the non-economic public healthcare activities of the PHIs and thus the contested measures do not fall within the scope of Article 107(1) TFEU is based on inaccurate and incomplete facts and on the incorrect legal categorisation of those facts that amount to the infringement of Articles 107 and 108 of the TFEU.

3.Third plea in law, alleging that the errors in fact and law described in the first two pleas reveal enough difficulties in the Commission’s assessment of this case and the insufficient examination of the relevant facts prior to adopting the Decision to warrant a formal investigation procedure. These difficulties are compounded by other procedural difficulties presented in this third plea. In the presence of those difficulties, the Commission was required to initiate the formal investigation procedure and has, by refusing to do so, infringed the Applicant’s procedural rights deriving from Article 108(2) TFEU.

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ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/7350/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)

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