2007 EC Competition Law and Sector-specific Regulatory Case Law Developments with a Nexus to Poland

Poland joined the EU on 1 May 2004. The initial “honeymoon” period has, generally speaking, been a happy one and there have been few prominent cases decided at the administrative level (i.e. the European Commission) or brought before the judiciary (i.e. the European Community Courts). That said, usually following notifications by Polish authorities, the Commission has taken a number of important individual decisions in the field of State aid (including the misuse of aid decisions in the steel sector and the Power Purchase Agreements decision), which have led to litigation before the Community Courts. The Commission’s decisions in Polish cases have already provided important clarifications (e.g. regarding the application of alternative State aid exemptions to pre-accession restructuring cases in Technologie Buczek) and raised significant new legal issues (e.g. the application of the EC State aid rules to pre-accession aid under Protocol No. 8 of the Accession Treaty in Huta Częstochowa or an agent’s actions triggering pre-accession cartel liability in BR/ESBR). Pending actions in these cases can and lead to further case law developments, especially with regard to Protocol No. 8 the Commission’s Rescue & Restructuring Guidelines.