72With regard to the principle of proportionality, the Commission contends that the special rights held by the State in GALP are not adequate to ensure the proper functioning of the gas distribution network and GALP’s retail selling of petroleum products. The rights in question are, in reality, instruments designed to pursue the private interest of the company and not the national interest. Moreover, contrary to the requirements of the case-law of the Court in this area (see, inter alia, Case C-483/99Commission v France [2002] ECR I-4781, paragraphs 50 to 53), since no precise and objective criteria have been laid down regulating the exercise of those rights, application of them is, in practice, entirely a matter of discretion.