Work Area: State Aid

The German courts can review the merits of arbitral awards relating to competition law, the country’s top court has ruled.

16 January 2023

The Luxembourg Court of Cassation has quashed the enforcement of the Micula brothers’ ICSID award against Romania on the basis that the arbitration clause in the underlying investment treaty was nullified when the state joined the European Union.

18 July 2022

An ICSID committee has upheld the largest award yet issued against Spain over its renewable energy reforms, rejecting arguments that the investor had “unclean hands” or that the tribunal should not have agreed to hear an intra-EU dispute.

28 March 2022

The European Commission has launched infringement proceedings against the UK over a decision by its Supreme Court allowing enforcement of a €178 million ICSID award against Romania.

10 February 2022

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the European Commission was competent to decide that Romania’s payment of a €178 million ICSID award in favour of the Micula brothers would violate state aid rules – also finding that Achmea is relevant to the case.

25 January 2022

The European Commission says it has begun an in-depth investigation to assess whether a €101 million Energy Charter Treaty award requiring Spain to compensate investors for changes to its renewable energy subsidy regime accords with EU state aid rules.

19 July 2021

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Sweden’s Micula brothers are entitled to enforce an ICSID award worth €300 million against Romania even though it is the subject of a pending state aid investigation by the European Commission.

19 February 2020

The General Court of the European Union has annulled a decision by the European Commission that prohibited Romania from paying a €178 million ICSID award in favour of Sweden’s Micula brothers on the basis of state aid rules.

18 June 2019

As the confrontation between the EU and ISDS intensifies, GAR reports on recent developments in the Micula brothers' battle to collect on their ICSID award against Romania, including a long-awaited hearing before an EU court and the unfreezing of bank accounts in Luxembourg.

01 May 2018