Introduction: EU State Aid Litigation in a Quasi-Federal System

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the EU State aid litigation in a quasi-federal system. Accordingly, a cursory look at the basic parameters of this hybrid system is helpful, in which judicial powers are shared between various actors and where effective judicial protection in line with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union needs to be granted via the interplay of supranational and national judicial remedies. Generally, in EU competition law, this system is referred to as one of centralized and decentralized review and enforcement. Its essential characteristics are first and foremost designed to be mutually reinforcing and complementary in nature, but they also give rise to numerous issues of conflict of laws—both procedural and substantive—as well as issues of conflict of jurisdiction and competence between the supranational and the national legal orders.