In an appeal, the European Court of Justice has rejected a lawsuit by the low-cost airline Wizz Air against aid paid to Tarom by the Romanian government in 2020. The low coster has no further legal remedy available.
The previous instance, the Court of the European Union, had already determined that the approval of the state aid granted in February 2020 in the amount of 175.952.000 Romanian lei was legal. Wizz Air has taken this decision to the European Court of Justice. On January 11, 2024, he published a judgment in which the low-cost airline's appeal was dismissed.
Tarom was already financially struggling before the corona pandemic. The carrier accumulated losses totaling 2004 Romanian lei between 2019 and 3.362.130.000. These far exceeded the equity capital. Wizz Air took the view that the state aid “under the guise of the corona pandemic” was not intended to provide support due to the consequences of the crisis, but rather to support the company, which was already said to have been “ripe for bankruptcy”.
The government of Romania submitted the proposed state aid to the EU Commission for approval. This gave the approval and justified this, among other things, by the fact that the domestic flights would be difficult for other companies to take over at short notice. Wizz Air did not want to accept this justification and went to court against the approval. As a final instance, the ECJ has now rejected the appeal of the pink low-cost airline.
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