Lufthansa is appealing the EU verdict on the billions in corona aid. An EU court had ruled that Brussels should not have approved German state aid.
The legal dispute over the billions in Corona state aid for Lufthansa continues. The airline has appealed to the European Court of Justice against the EU court’s ruling that annulled the EU Commission’s approval of billions in aid in May. The federal government had granted Lufthansa the help during the pandemic.
“Obvious error of judgment”
In its judgment, the court accused Brussels of “obvious errors of assessment”. The competition authorities should have checked more closely whether Lufthansa still had its own collateral in order to obtain loans for itself, was a central accusation. The EU Commission wrongly assumed that Lufthansa could not have obtained the necessary funds on the markets.
In addition, they misjudged Lufthansa’s considerable market power at certain airports. According to the court, the obligations imposed on the company did not ensure that effective competition was maintained.
Ryanair and Condor sued
Competitors Ryanair and Condor had sued. The subject of the lawsuit was a partial package of six billion euros from silent participations and a block of shares that had been held by the federal economic stabilization fund (WSF). The EU Commission approved this aid in June 2020.
Overall, the states of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium had provided the group with an aid framework of nine billion euros to avert the impending bankruptcy in the corona shock. The travel restrictions in the pandemic almost brought Lufthansa’s business to a standstill at the time.
In return, Lufthansa had to undertake to avoid distortions of competition, such as handing over take-off and landing rights in Frankfurt and Munich to the competition. The rescue plan called for the State Economic Stabilization Fund to subscribe to shares in a capital increase to build a 20 percent stake in the airline’s share capital.
Bund made a profit
The aid was repaid in full by the Lufthansa company after the end of the pandemic last year. In addition, the state got out earlier than planned. “The stabilization was already complete before the court’s verdict,” said a Lufthansa spokeswoman. Deutsche Lufthansa AG has already paid back the stabilization measures and around 92 million euros in interest in full. The two silent participations in the Economic Stabilization Fund were repaid in October and November 2021.
“Last year, the WSF sold its shares in Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which it had acquired as part of the stabilization process, with a total profit of 760 million euros,” said the spokeswoman. The head of the finance agency, Jutta Dönges, had therefore spoken of a “gratifying balance sheet”.