Judgment_paragraph 37 · Federal Republic of Germany v European Commission (C-405/16 P)

37The EEG surcharge constitutes an increase applied to a purchase price of a private nature paid by electricity suppliers in return for the ‘green’ electricity label and thus falls within the scope of a relationship involving a service and consideration, unlike a levy which is collected on a compulsory basis without consideration. In addition, the case-law of the Court of Justice requires, in order for a levy to be classified as State aid, it must be hypothecated to the aid measure, which is not so in the case of the EEG surcharge. That surcharge does not constitute revenue of a Member State, determined in an abstract manner. The EEG 2012 thus constitutes a continuation of the Stromeinspeisungsgesetz (Law on feeding electricity from renewable energy sources into the public grid, BGBl. 1990 I, p. 2633) which the Court of Justice did not classify as aid in its judgment of 13 March 2001, PreussenElektra (C‑379/98, EU:C:2001:160) the only difference between the two schemes arising being that the electricity suppliers buy not the physical electricity but the renewable nature of that electricity at a fixed price (EEG surcharge).