Photo: Avda / avda-foto.de
 

BECCLE has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar with Cees Dekker, Tuesday 12 March, on state aid and the tender procedure

Does a Tender Exclude an Article 107(1) TFEU Advantage?

One of the elements of the concept of State aid as referred to in Article 107(1) TFEU is the element of advantage. The element concerns an economic advantage that an undertaking could not have obtained under normal market conditions. A common opinion is that a tender procedure regarding the purchase or sale of goods or services by a government body guarantees those ‘normal market conditions’. It appears however that the European Commission in several occasions considered transactions between government bodies and undertakings as state aid even if that undertaking is selected by a tender procedure, for instance regarding the rollout of a charging pole infrastructure or the operation of a sports infrastructure. Furthermore, for a state aid measure to be compatible with the internal market the use of a tender procedure sometimes is required.

In this seminar, Cees Dekker will discuss these relations between state aid and tender procedures and the different approaches by the European Court of Justice and the European Commission.

Cees Dekker is a partner with law firm Nysingh in The Netherlands and has 30 years of experience in EU and Competition Law. In his practice focusing on state aid law, he advises government bodies and undertakings how to shape financial relations in such a way that they do not form illegal state aid. He has been involved in several state aid notofcation procedures with the European Commission. Apart from being a lawyer in private practice he is a guest lecturer in state aid law at the University of Amsterdam, a member of the board of editors of the journal Markt & Mededinging (“markets and competition”), as well as of the board of editors of Tijdschrift voor Staatssteun (Journal for State aid). He also is a member of the advisory committee on competition law of the Dutch Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW) and of the advisory committee on competition law of the Netherlands Bar Association. Recently he has been appointed as non-governmental advisor for the European Commission in the International Competition Network.

Time: Tuesday 12 March kl. 11.00 – 12.00
Place:: Seminarrom 1, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen

Speakers:

Cees Dekker

Partner, Nysingh