White & Case successfully represents Oltchim in €325 million State aid recovery decision before General Court of the European Union

Global law firm White & Case LLP has successfully represented Oltchim S.A. before the General Court of the European Union in relation to around €325 million in State aid which was alleged to have been unlawfully granted within the scope of Oltchim's restructuring.

"As well as its high value, this was a complex case due to the broad range of measures deemed by the European Commission to be unlawful state aid involving various different public authorities and state-owned companies," said White & Case counsel Christoph Arhold. "In addition, it was necessary to correlate multilayered, complex State aid law concepts with numerous other legal provisions applicable in the case, including various areas of Romanian law and other regulatory matters."

White & Case successfully challenged the European Commission's State aid decision, according to which Romania had to recover alleged State aid consisting of various measures taken during 2012-2015 in relation to Oltchim's restructuring.

In its judgment rendered on 15 December 2021 (available here), the General Court ruled in favour of Oltchim. The ruling dismissed the European Commission's inadmissibility plea and has concluded that, in relation to almost all of the measures under review, it failed to demonstrate that these measures constituted State aid. The judgement may be appealed.

The White & Case team which advised Oltchim included counsel Christoph Arhold (Berlin) and local partner Kai Struckman (Brussels). Lawyers from Romanian law firm Bondoc & Asociatii SCA also assisted with respect to Romanian law.

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