Luxembourg, 04/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - In its appeal to the European Court of First Instance (which now has the power to deal with this type of case, Ed.) over the MobilCom aid case, the German government argues that the Commission 'has committed grave errors of assessment'.
Germany is calling for annulment of the European Commission's decision of 14 July 2004 (see Europe of 17 July) on restructuring aid for MobilCom, insofar s the Commission requires Germany to ensure that MobilCom and all companies in its group close their online shops for the direct online sale of MobilCom mobile telephone contracts for a period of seven months.
Germany argues that EU rules only authorise the European Commission to demand that a Member State ensure the refund by a company of aid deemed to be unlawful. 'The Commission has therefore exceeded its margin of discretion articularly since Germany has expressly stated that it is not in a position to guarantee compliance with the conditions.'
Alongside the above condition, the Commission stipulated in its decision of 12 August 2004 that during the time the online shops are closed, the direct online sale of MobilCom mobile telephone contracts via the MobilCom shops website is also discontinued, that MobilCom and companies in its group take no other steps to circumvent those conditions and that clients are not transferred directly via an automatic link on the relevant website to a sales partner. MobilCom has lodged a separate appeal in this connection (see article below).