Category Archives: UK case

CAT hands down first judgment under the Subsidy Control Act 2022

On 27 July, the Competition Appeal Tribunal handed down judgment in The Durham Company Limited v Durham County Council. The Claimant’s case was in essence that the Council was subsidising its commercial waste operation (for which the Council was obliged … Continue reading

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R (British Gas & Ors) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero – the latest insight into the new subsidy control regime and a cautionary tale about limitation

We are grateful for the following blog by Joanne Clement KC and Barney McKay. On Friday 31 March 2023, the Divisional Court dismissed three challenges to the Secretary of State’s consent to the transfer of Bulb to Octopus. The decisions … Continue reading

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R(Good Law Project) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Abingdon Health plc: State aid issues

The judgment of Waksman J in R(Good Law Project) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Abingdon Health plc (“Abingdon“) has received a lot of coverage for its procurement law implications and for the future ability of … Continue reading

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Sweet failure: British Sugar fails to persuade the High Court that the sugar advance tariff quota breaches Article 10 of the Protocol or the subsidy control provisions of the TCA

The judgment of Foxton J in R(British Sugar) v Secretary of State for International Trade[2022] EWHC 393 (Admin) is the first judicial consideration of the impact of Article 10 of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol, which (as discussed here) applies EU … Continue reading

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State aid damages claim unsuccessful yet again – and time to bring such a claim is running out – by Aidan Robertson QC

As Falk J observed in 2019 in Credit Suisse v HMRC [2019] EWHC 1922 (Ch)[1] at [95] when rejecting a claim for damages following a full trial of the action, there is no recorded instance of damages being awarded by … Continue reading

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Supreme Court permits enforcement of Micula brothers’ ICSID award

Yesterday the Supreme Court gave judgment in Micula v Romania, lifting a stay on the enforcement of an ICSID (International Convention for the Settlement of Investment Disputes) arbitral award. In doing so it rejected the argument that EU law requires enforcement to be stayed in circumstances where there are live proceedings in the European Court to determine whether payment of the award would constitute unlawful State aid and disagreed with both Blair J at first instance and the Court of Appeal.  Continue reading

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Latest developments in the Micula saga

The Supreme Court was due to hear this week appeals from the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Micula v Romania.  This dispute centres on the clash between an international investment arbitration award (rendered under the ICSID Convention), and … Continue reading

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UK tax exemption ruled to be illegal State aid: reports emerge that HMRC may have to recover “tens to hundreds of millions of pounds” from beneficiary businesses.

We are grateful to Jonathan Branton and Alexander Rose of DWF for contributing this article.  On 2nd April 2019 the European Commission concluded that a tax break introduced in the Finance Act 2012 constitutes unlawful State aid to certain multi-national … Continue reading

Posted in Brexit issues, Commission decision, UK case | 1 Comment

Court of Appeal rules on State aid in Sky Blue No. 2

On 12 October 2018 the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the latest State aid challenge brought by the owners of Coventry City Football Club against Coventry City Council: R (Sky Blue Sports & Leisure Ltd) v Coventry City Council [2018] EWCA Civ 2252. This blog comments on this latest judgment in the Sky Blue saga. Continue reading

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Stay of Micula brothers’ ICSID award upheld by Court of Appeal

On 27 July 2018, the Court of Appeal (Arden, Hamblen and Leggatt LLJ) handed down its judgment in Micula and others v Romania [2018] EWCA Civ 1801, a case concerning the intersection of international law rules for investment arbitration with EU law rules on State aid. Continue reading

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