Concurrentie: Europese Commissie blij met uitspraak inzake staatssteun Oostenrijk aan Lenzing (en)

The European Commission i welcomes today's judgment by the European Court of Justice i dismissing the action by the Spanish viscose producer Sniace S.A. against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 14 April 2005 (Case T-88/01). In this latter judgement, the Court of First Instance declared inadmissible Sniace's action for annulment of a Commission Decision of 19 July 2000 authorising state aid granted by Austria to Lenzing Lyocell GmbH & Co. KG (LLG). The Court of Justice has now confirmed the original findings of the Court of First Instance, and dismissed the appeal in its entirety.

On 19 July 2000, the European Commission concluded that the measures in favour of Lenzing Lyocell either did not constitute state aid, or complied with previously authorised aid schemes (see IP/00/801 ).

The Spanish company Sniace, appealed to the EU Court of First Instance (CFI) to annul the Commission's decision. In its judgment of 14 April 2005 (Case T-88/01), the CFI dismissed as inadmissible the application presented by Sniace. In particular, the CFI considered that, further to Article 230 of the EC Treaty, a natural or legal person may institute proceedings against a decision addressed to another person only if that decision is of direct and individual concern to the former. The CFI found that Sniace had failed to show that its situation was sufficiently comparable to that of the aid recipient and that Sniace had played only a minor role in the course of the Commission procedure.

The judgment of the Court of Justice

In June 2005, Sniace filed an appeal against the judgment of the CFI claiming that various errors of assessment had been made in relation to (i) the direct competition between the cellulose fibres manufactured and marketed by Lenzing Lyocell and Sniace, (ii) the existence of a set of specific circumstances identifying Sniace, and (iii) the considerable adverse effect on Sniace's position in the market.

Sniace also claimed an error of law with regard to the CFI's conclusion that it had played only a minor role in the pre-litigation procedure. In particular, Sniace alleged that it had made effective use of its procedural rights and submitted comments with regard to the aid granted to Lenzing Lyocell.

Sniace further alleged breach of the fundamental right of effective legal protection - insofar as the CFI decided to declare the action inadmissible, without undertaking any evaluation of the merits of the case, and breach of the principle of procedural equality - as the CFI had accepted an appeal filed by Lenzing AG concerning the approval of state aid to Sniace -.

In its judgement, the Court of Justice rejects the arguments of Sniace, and dismisses the appeal in its entirety. In particular the Court of Justice underlined that SNIACE failed to demonstrate that there is direct competition between Lyocell and Viscose fibres, that the aid would substantially affect its position on the market. The Court concluded that since SNIACE was not individually concerned by the contested decision, the latter could not claim that the CFI's judgments infringed its right to effective judicial protection.

The Court of Justice also dismissed allegations of unequal treatment by the CFI and confirmed that the CFI was right to consider that the production of further information from SNIACE was not necessary to enable it to rule on the case.

The approved aid

Lenzing Lyocell is one of the world's largest producers of viscose fibres. In 1996, it constructed a new production plant at the Business Park Heiligenkreuz-Szentgotthard, a cross-border project between Austria and Hungary, to manufacture Lyocell, a new type of man-made staple fibre produced from natural cellulose in wood pulp. The Business Park is situated in Land Burgenland, Austria's only area eligible for regional aid under article 87(3)(a) of the EC treaty.