35It follows, as Ms Campogrande argues, that the substance of the complaint is not intended to be strictly and definitively binding for the purposes of the contentious stage of the procedure, provided always that neither the legal basis nor the subject- matter of the complaint is changed in the action brought (Case 52/85 Rihoux and Others v Commission [1986] ECR 1555, paragraph 12). Thus the Court has held that, where the applicant asked in his complaint for the annulment of the implied decision rejecting his request for assistance, he must be regarded as having asked for compensation for the damage which may have been caused to him by that decision (see Case 224/87 Koutchoumoff v Commission [1989] ECR 99, paragraph 10).
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