A top European court has ruled that the European Commission was wrong to approve de facto stateaid for Chronopost, the express subsidiary of La Poste, the French online service Challenges
Business has reported. The case dates back into the 1990s.The European Court of First Instance finally decided that the European Commission had beenunjustified in 1997 in approving the subsidies. In particular, Chronopost had benefited from thefree transfer of Postadex, the courier service of La Poste. This constituted state aid sinceChronopost had made no payment to state-owned La Poste, the court said.
The case had been bought by competitors, including FedEx and DHL. An earlier court ruling in2000 against the state aid was overturned on appeal in 2003 for procedural reasons, and the casewas referred back to the court.
