State aid: Commission welcomes Court judgment in Spanish Goodwill cases

On the 21 December 2016, The European Commission welcomed judgment by the EU Court of Justice. This judgement upheld two Commission decisions of October 2009 and January 2011, regarding the tax amortisation of financial goodwill for foreign shareholding acquisitions in Spain.

The Commission in its decisions had concluded that the Spanish measure gave those companies a selective advantage over their competitors in breach of EU state aid rules. The judgment is important because it confirmed that a measure may be selective, if it benefited only those companies that they carried out certain transactions.

The Commission decisions of October 2009 and January 2011 are reinstated, including Spain's obligation to recover the aid granted under the measure. The Commission would now work with the Spanish authorities to implement them.