Judgment_paragraph 42 · Société Internationale de Diffusion et d'Edition (SIDE) v Commission of the European Communities (T-49/93)

42In particular, the applicant considers that, having regard to the information which it had supplied to the Commission and which disclosed highly significant evidence that Articles 85 and 86 of the EC Treaty had been infringed, the defendant ought not to have been satisfied with ‘a few very superficial answers from the French Government’. On that point, SIDE refers to paragraphs 41 to 45 of the judgment in Case C-225/91 Matra v Commission [1993] ECR I-3203, in which the Court of Justice stated that, in adopting a decision regarding the compatibility of a State aid with the common market, the Commission is required to ensure that the procedure provided for in Articles 92 and 93 does not produce a result which is contrary to other provisions of the Treaty and, in particular, to ensure that the recipient of the aid is not in a position where it contravenes Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty. According to the applicant, the failure to undertake a serious review thus led the Commission to believe that it was authorizing a scheme of aid to exporters of French books, whereas in fact the aid was going to a single enterprise, CELF, which is one agent among others. SIDE claims that, by granting to CELF alone the subsidy for offsetting the extra cost of handling small orders, in the management of the three specific aid schemes, the French Government was encouraging a restrictive arrangement between the publisher members of that cooperative the effect of which was to prevent booksellers from freely choosing their channels of supply, in breach of Article 85 of the Treaty. The applicant here refers to Commission Decision 82/123/EEC of 25 November 1981 relating to a proceeding under Article 85 of the EEC Treaty (IV/428 — VBBB/VBVB, OJ 1982 L 54, p. 36), upheld by the judgment of the Court of Justice in Joined Cases 43/82 and 63/82 VBVB and VBBB v Commission [1984] ECR 19. The grant of the aids in question also strengthened the dominant position which, according to the applicant, CELF holds on the book export agency market. Those aids make it possible for CELF to charge prices which the other export agents cannot match and which might therefore lead to the elimination of independent competitors on that market and thus to an abuse of CELF's dominant position.

Société Internationale de Diffusion et d'Edition (SIDE) v Commission of the European Communities (T-49/93)

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