16 December 2019

State aid: Private investor in a market economy test
The private investor test is not applicable to an order made by a national court ruling in interlocutory proceedings, granting the appellant interim measures to protect its financial interests which presents, in view of its nature, the context in which it is set, its objective and the rules to which it is subject, the characteristics of a judicial act falling within the prerogatives of public authority of the Member State concerned.
CJUE Case C-332/18 P Mytilinaios Anonymos Etairia – Omilos Epicheiriseon, Judgment of 11 December 2019, LawLex201900001521JBJ

State aid: Effect on trade between Member States
The criteria relating to the distortion of competition and the effect on trade between Member States are met where an aid strengthens the position of an undertaking compared with other undertakings competing in the Union’s internal trade.
CJUE Case C-332/18 P Mytilinaios Anonymos Etairia – Omilos Epicheiriseon, Judgment of 11 December 2019, LawLex201900001521JBJ

Jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments: Scope of application
A dispute concerning a lawyer’s obligation to pay annual professional fees for which he or she is liable to the bar association to which he or she belongs comes within the scope of Regulation No 1215/2012 only if, in calling on that lawyer to perform that obligation, the bar association is not acting, under the national law applicable, in the exercise of public powers.
CJEU, Case C-421/18 Ordre des avocats du barreau de Dinant, Judgment of 5 December 2019, LawLex201900001513JBJ

Jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments: Concept of matters relating to a contract
An action by which a bar association seeks an order that one of its members pay the annual professional fees for which he or she is liable does not in principle constitute an action in matters relating to a contract, insofar as it is based on a legal obligation to register with the bar association to which practising as a professional lawyer is subject and not on a legal freely consented to by one person towards another.
CJEU, Case C-421/18 Ordre des avocats du barreau de Dinant, Judgment of 5 December 2019, LawLex201900001513JBJ

Jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments: Concept of matters relating to a contract
An action by which a bar association seeks an order that one of its members pay the annual professional fees for which he or she is liable and which are essentially intended to finance insurance services, must be regarded as constituting an action in matters relating to a contract, if those fees constitute consideration for services provided by that bar association to its members and those services are freely consented to by the member concerned.
CJEU, Case C-421/18 Ordre des avocats du barreau de Dinant, Judgment of 5 December 2019, LawLex201900001513JBJ