Judgment_paragraph 62 · European Commission v Deutsche Telekom AG (C-221/22 P)

62Similarly, the Commission’s argument that, in the present case, there was neither a sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law nor sufficient proof of harm suffered by Deutsche Telekom cannot succeed. Where it is obliged, under the first paragraph of Article 266 TFEU, to repay a given sum of money together with interest, the Commission has no discretion as to whether it is appropriate to pay that interest, so that the mere infringement of EU law, consisting in the refusal to pay that interest, is sufficient to establish the existence of a sufficiently serious breach of EU law capable of giving rise to the European Union’s non-contractual liability (see, to that effect, the judgment in Printeos, paragraphs 103 and 104). In the present case, the Commission was required, in accordance with that provision, following the 2018 judgment in Deutsche Telekom, to repay the amount of the fine unduly collected together with interest, as the General Court correctly held in paragraph 112 of the judgment under appeal. Furthermore, since that interest is ‘at a standard rate’, as is apparent from the case-law referred to in paragraph 52 above, the Commission cannot escape that obligation on the ground that Deutsche Telekom has not sufficiently proved the existence of harm.

European Commission v Deutsche Telekom AG (C-221/22 P)

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