STATE AIDS TO AIRLINES DUE TO COVID-19 AND RYANAIR’S ACTIONS 713 By its third plea in law, Ryanair raises several sub-pleas, claiming that the Commission infringed several provisions concerning the liberalisation of air transport in the European Union: a) breach of the principle of proportionality – the court held that the measure at issue aims only at partially compensating SAS for the damage resulting from the cancellation or rescheduling of its flights, following the introduction of travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic, therefore, it had no doubts as to its proportionality; b) breach of the principle of non-discrimination – the court held that an individual aid benefit, by definition, only one company “and excludes all others, including those in a situation comparable to that of the beneficiary of that aid”, adding that “by its very nature, an individual aid measure creates a difference of treatment, or even discrimination, which is, however, inherent in the individual character of that measure”. The CJEU thus rejected another argument; and c) breach of the principle of the free provision of services and the freedom of establishment – here, without much difficulty, the CJEU also dismissed the case, as no obstacles were or are placed in Ryanair’s path, either to establish itself or to provide air transport services. The fourth plea raised by the Irish low-cost airline concerned the assessment of the information and evidence the Commission possessed or could have possessed during the preliminary examination phase of the contested measure. That information should have given rise to doubts as to its compatibility with the internal market, with the result that the examination carried out by the European competition authority was insufficient or incomplete. Like the previous pleas, this plea was not upheld by the CJEU. The fifth and final plea concerned the exceptional occurrence referred to in TFEU, which, according to Ryanair, was not clearly identified in the Commission’s decision. However, the CJEU concluded that the contested decision was sufficiently reasoned, so the final plea was too rejected. 4.3. Swedish State aid to SAS On 11 April 2020, the European Commission adopted the decision on the Swedish aid scheme regarding COVID-19, which had been communicated eight
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