European Court of Justice clears German EEG exemptions for large users

The European Court of Justice has overturned a 2014 ruling by the European Commission, considering that the renewable surcharge exemption granted by Germany to energy-intensive users was in line with EU state aid rules.



In 2012, Germany exempted energy-intensive companies from paying the renewable energy surcharge (EEG surcharge) to avoid soaring costs for industrial customers. In 2014, the European Commission considered that this exemption was not distorting competition but approved it only for auto-producing industrial companies until 2017. In October 2016, it opened an in-depth investigation to determine whether reductions to these surcharges for these users were in line with EU state aid rules and ordered Germany to recoup the non-collected surcharge (around €5bn); that decision was backed by the EU general court in a ruling in 2016. Germany also amended its conditions for exemptions, limiting the reductions to a maximum of 85% of the surcharge.



However, the European Court of Justice now considers that the European Commission failed to establish that these exemptions were illegal state aid and annulled EU orders to recover the aid.