Judgment_paragraph 120 · European Commission v Fútbol Club Barcelona (C-362/19 P)

120It should be borne in mind that it is in accordance with the settled case-law of the Court that, in view of the mandatory nature of the supervision of State aid by the Commission pursuant to Article 108 TFEU, undertakings to which aid has been granted may not, in principle, rely on a legitimate expectation that the aid is lawful unless it has been granted in compliance with the procedure laid down in that article, and furthermore, an economic operator exercising due care should normally be able to determine whether that procedure has been followed. In particular, where aid is implemented without prior notification to the Commission, with the result that it is unlawful under Article 108(3) TFEU, the recipient of the aid cannot rely at that time on a legitimate expectation that its grant is lawful (judgments of 5 March 2019, Eesti Pagar, C‑349/17, EU:C:2019:172, paragraph 98, and of 29 July 2019, Bayerische Motoren Werke and Freistaat Sachsen v Commission, C‑654/17 P, EU:C:2019:634, paragraph 145). This is true both in cases of individual grants of aid and aid granted under an aid scheme (judgment of 30 April 2020, Nelson Antunes da Cunha, C‑627/18, EU:C:2020:321, paragraph 46).

European Commission v Fútbol Club Barcelona (C-362/19 P)

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