The Treatment of State-owned Enterprises in EU Competition Law: New Developments and Future Challenges

摘要

The Commission has elaborated over time a well-developed decisional practice, based on provisions of the EU Treaties, the EUMR and the Commission Jurisdictional Notice, on how to assess whether SOEs are to be considered independent from the State in their decisionmaking. The analysis of the Commission precedents clearly shows that a large variety of situations have come to test the solidity of the criteria established in past decisions (acquisitions by an SOE, acquisition of control by a State through the recapitalisation of a bank, creation of joint ventures, etc.). It also brings to light the significant number of these transactions that involved companies active in the energy sector (Russian gas companies, Norwegian oil companies, French and Belgian electricity companies, Chinese companies active in the nuclear sector, etc.)