Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

State aid definition

What does State aid mean? In practice, state aid refers to public financial support that selectively benefits businesses and risks distorting competition or trade. Under EU law (Articles 107-109 TFEU and case law), it covers advantages granted through state resources that favour certain undertakings or goods and affect trade between Member States. Typical measures include grants, loans, guarantees, tax reliefs, equity injections and land or services below market value. Unless covered by the General Block Exemption Regulation or de minimis rules, aid must be notified to and approved by the European Commission; unlawful aid can be recovered with interest. In Great Britain, the EU state aid...

Case C-347/20 Zinātnes parks (CJEU): GBER ‘undertaking in difficulty’—autonomous ‘subscribed capital’; ERDF selection may require specified evidence and reject late documents

Published by a LexisNexis Competition expert

Practice notes

CASE HUB ARCHIVED-this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 27 January 2022; it is no longer maintained. See further: timeline.

Case facts

Outline

A national reference from Latvia sought clarification on multiple issues concerning how to interpret an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ in the context of the State aid regime.

Latest developments

On 27 January 2022, the Court of Justice delivered its judgment and held:

the notion of subscribed capital in Article 2(18)(a) GBER should be read, for the purposes of defining ‘an undertaking in difficulty’, as encompassing all contributions that current and future partners or Shares of a company have made or have undertaken to make
Article 3(3) of Regulation 1301/2013 must be construed as meaning that, to assess whether a tenderer is not ‘an undertaking in difficulty’ under Article 2(18) of Regulation 651/2014, the competent managing Authority need only consider evidence that meets the requirements set when the project selection procedure was established, provided those requirements respect the principles of effectiveness and equivalence, and the general principles of EU law
the exclusion of

...

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Web page updated on 27/05/2026

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