67As the Advocate General recalled in point 87 of his Opinion, Article 345 TFEU does not exempt public ownership systems from State aid rules, given that it follows from Article 106(1) TFEU that the competition rules contained in the TFEU, including those on State aid, apply, in principle, also to public undertakings. Further, and as the Commission maintains, to accept the view that State aid rules do not apply on account of the fact that the beneficiary is a public undertaking and that the advantage conferred remains in the economic sphere of the State in the broad sense, would undermine the effectiveness of those rules and introduce unjustified discrimination between public beneficiaries and private beneficiaries, contrary to the principle of neutrality laid down in Article 345 TFEU.
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