Golden shares and market governance

Abstract:

Moves towards less direct State intervention in the market have been accompanied by experimentation with legal tools to allow the State to retain some control over privatised companies, especially where the supply of goods and services in sensitive sectors is involved. Recent infringement actions brought by the Commission questioning the use of golden shares in privatised companies have contributed to the developing framework of regulating State intervention in the market, revealing the growing involvement of European Community law in European public law and governance ideas. The rulings of the Court reveal a willingness to use the free movement of capital provisions of the EC Treaty to tackle restrictions on access to the market but suggest that a range of public interest justifications are available to the Member States, leaving the courts to balance a number of competing interests in the market opening process.