12th Mar 2008 12:33
Ryanair Holdings PLC12 March 2008 EUROPEAN COURT HEARS RYANAIR'S APPEAL AGAINST COMMISSION'S CHARLEROI DECISION Ryanair, Europe's favourite airline, today (Wednesday, 12th March 2008)confirmed that the European Court of First Instance (CFI) had heard its appealagainst the EU Commission's anti competitive decision in the Charleroi case in2004. The Commission ignored 30 years of Market Economy Investor Principalprecedent cases and changed its own (MEIP) rules in the Charleroi case in orderto find against Ryanair. The Commission failed to apply the accepted MEIP test,which obliges it to allow state owned companies to compete on a level playingfield with similar privately owned companies. The Commission ignored all of the evidence provided by Ryanair and industryexperts like Infratil and TBI, which proved that the agreement between Ryanairand Charleroi Airport was the result of a competitive tender and did not involvestate aid. Commenting today following the hearing at the CFI, Ryanair's Head of RegulatoryAffairs, Jim Callaghan, said: "Ryanair is happy to have finally forced the European Commission into court. Weare confident that the CFI will overturn what is a patently wrong andanti-competitive decision. The case evidence clearly shows that the Commissionwent to extreme lengths to invent a finding of state aid in this case and to useit as a precedent to regulate all publicly owned airports. At the hearing in Luxembourg, Ryanair raised the following grounds: •The Commission failed to apply the Market Economy Investor Principle (MEIP), which is the test for proving that a public company was acting in the same way as a private investor would have in the same circumstances. •The Commission ignored evidence that the Charleroi agreement resulted from Ryanair's negotiations with several other lower cost airports. •The Commission ignored the fact that Ryanair's cost base at Charleroi was specifically offered to other airlines willing to make the same investment in the airport that Ryanair did. •The Commission ignored the fact that Ryanair demonstrated that it had lower costs at several other privately owned airports. •The Commission ignored the huge growth in traffic, profits and value of Charleroi airport as a result of Ryanair's investment in the airport (roughly €200 million). •The Commission ignored the fact that other airlines, commercial retailers and airport investors have come to Brussels Charleroi Airport as a result of the successful partnership between Ryanair and the airport. The Commission's decision was therefore seriously wrong and legally untenable.We look forward to a positive decision of the CFI and are confident that thesuccessful partnership between low fares airlines and regional airports will bevindicated and the anti competitive actions of the European commissionoverturned". ENDS. Wednesday, 12th March 2008 For reference: Peter Sherrard - Ryanair Tel: +353 1 8121228 Pauline McAlester/ Robert Marshall - Murray ConsultantsTel: +353 1 4980300 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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