On Monday 8 July, the European Commission announced that it had opened an in-depth investigation to examine the compliance of a €6 billion German recapitalisation measure for the airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
The Commission initially approved the measure in June 2020 under the temporary framework, as amended to relax the rules on State aid during the Covid-19 pandemic, subject to Lufthansa fulfilling a number of commitments (see EUROPE 12514/6, 12497/20).
However, in May 2023, the EU General Court annulled the Commission’s approval decision. The General Court found that the Commission’s decision contained a number of errors and irregularities (see EUROPE 13179/18).
The Commission indicated that Lufthansa had lodged an appeal, but that this was still being examined.
The Commission will now investigate this restructuring measure in depth. The institution has stressed that it will focus in particular on certain elements of the measure such as: Lufthansa’s eligibility for the aid measure; the need for a mechanism to increase remuneration or a similar mechanism to encourage, over time, the German State’s exit from the capital; the share price at the time of a potential conversion of Silent Participation II (one of the measure’s components) into equity; the existence of significant market power (SMP) at airports other than Frankfurt and Munich; certain aspects of the structural commitments imposed on Lufthansa.
Link to case: https://aeur.eu/f/cyx (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)