The Approaching Sunset of the Marketing Agreement Loophole · Case T‑79/21 Ryanair DAC and Others v European Commission · Annotation by Tamás Kende and Gábor Puskás

On 14 June 2023, the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment on the latest Ryanair case involving Montpellier airport.1 The applicants had challenged the European Commission's decision that the State provides illegal State aid not only when it orders a service at a price other than the market price, but also when it has no real need for that service, no matter how much it pays for it. The scope of application of the ‘real need’ test and criteria of the Commission’s assessment of the real needs of state entities may become a new battleground, and soon.