35By contrast, where a State measure must be regarded as compensation for the services provided by the recipient undertakings in order to discharge public service obligations, so that those undertakings do not enjoy a real financial advantage and the measure thus does not have the effect of putting them in a more favourable competitive position than the undertakings competing with them, such a measure does not constitute State aid under European Union law (see the judgments in Ferring, paragraphs 23 and 25, and Altmark Trans and Regierungspräsidium Magdeburg, paragraph 87, in response to questions referred for a preliminary ruling prior to the judgment of the Corte suprema di cassazione of 19 April 2000, at issue in the main proceedings; and Servizi Ausiliari Dottori Commercialisti, paragraph 60, and Essent Netwerk Noord and Others, paragraph 80).
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