29As ABN Amro points out, the Commission, in adopting rules of conduct and announcing by publishing them that it will henceforth apply those rules to the cases to which they relate, itself imposes a limit on the exercise of its discretion and cannot depart from those rules under pain of being found, where appropriate, to be in breach of general principles of law, such as the principles of equal treatment or the protection of legitimate expectations (see Joined Cases C-75/05 P and C-80/05 P Germany and Others v Kronofrance [2008] ECR I-6619, paragraph 60 and case-law cited). Thus, in the specific area of State aid, the Commission is bound by the guidelines and communications that it adopts, in so far as they do not depart from the rules in the Treaty and are accepted by the Member States (see Germany and Others v Kronofrance, paragraph 61 and case-law cited). It is therefore for the Court to determine whether the Commission has observed the rules which it adopted (see Région Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Communauté d’agglomération du Douaisis v Commission, paragraph 27 above, paragraph 131 and case-law cited).
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