The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has annulled a ruling of the General Court that endorsed the tax regime of

FC Barcelona, ​​Athletic de Bilbao, Real Madrid and Osasuna

, thereby definitively rejecting the appeal that the Barça club had filed against the decision of the European Commission (EC) to order Spain to recover the state aid from which those clubs had benefited.

In a ruling published this Thursday, the CJEU "annulled the ruling of the General Court which had annulled the decision of the Commission by which the tax regime of four Spanish professional football clubs was classified as State aid" and "was it definitively dismisses the appeal that Fútbol Club Barcelona had filed "against it.

The General Court had annulled in February 2019 the decision of the European Commission to order Spain to recover the State aid that it considered illegal from which these clubs had benefited, thus endorsing the tax regime of the four entities as public limited companies. sports

The Commission understood that these clubs had benefited since 1990 from a tax rate of 25% instead of 30% and demanded that Spain in 2016 recover up to five million euros per club in unpaid taxes.

The case dates back to the Spanish law of 1990 that forced professional sports clubs to convert themselves into sports limited companies, with the aim of promoting transparency in management.

However, an exception was established so that clubs that had obtained positive economic results in previous years could choose to continue operating in the form of sports clubs, a measure to which Fútbol Club Barcelona, ​​the Club Atlético Osasuna, Athletic Club and Real Madrid.

As non-profit legal entities, these four clubs were thus entitled to a specific tax rate on their performance, which until 2016 was lower than the tax rate applicable to sports corporations, which the Commission considered aid in the form of illegal privilege that was not compatible with the internal market.

Brussels ordered Spain to abolish this regime and to recover "immediately and effectively from the beneficiaries the amount of the aid granted."

But after an appeal filed in Luxembourg by Barcelona and Athletic de Bilbao, the TGUE concluded that the Commission had not sufficiently proven that these football clubs had enjoyed an advantage derived from the tax regime of non-profit organizations.

Among other arguments, in its opinion, against which there is no recourse, CJEU maintains that "the controversial aid scheme could favor, from the moment of its adoption, clubs that functioned as a non-profit organization over those that operated as a sports corporation, thus giving them an advantage. "

"The Commission was not obliged to examine, in the contested decision, the impact of the deduction for the reinvestment of extraordinary profits nor that of the possibilities of transferring this deduction in the form of a tax credit to future years and, in particular, whether this deduction or those possibilities would neutralize the advantage resulting from the reduced tax rate, "adds the Luxembourg-based court.

The CJEU concludes, therefore, that the General Court made "an error of law in ruling that the Commission was obliged to carry out such an examination, requesting, if necessary, the relevant information" and, consequently, "dismisses the appeal filed by FC Barcelona ".

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