CJEU - Recent Developments in Direct Taxation 2024

1. Description of the case

On 27 April 2022, the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) delivered a significant judgement in the case of Mrs Flašker v. European Commission (T-392/20). This case arose from an application by Mrs Flašker, a private pharmacist, seeking the annulment of a European Commission (EC) decision from 24 March 2020. According to the decision of the GCEU, the EC had failed to initiate a formal investigation procedure under Articles 107 and 108 (2) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) regarding potential State aid granted by Slovenia to a municipal network of dispensing pharmacies.

Mrs Flašker and her colleagues from the private pharmacy sector found the EC’s decision to be incomprehensible, as it halted the examination in the preliminary phase, leaving unresolved concerns about the internal market's functioning in Slovenia. The dispute centred on Javni zavod Lekarna Ljubljana (Lekarna Ljubljana), a public pharmacy established in 1979 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, during the socialist system era. Following Slovenia's independence in 1991, and still existing today, Lekarna Ljubljana is one of 25 public pharmacies in the State, operating nearly 200 p...