Aiuti di Stato illegali o incompatibili ed effettività della tutela risarcitoria: osservazioni tra diritto dell’Unione europea e giurisprudenza nazionale

By analysing the most recent European and Italian case-law, this paper focuses on the damage compensation of the market operators who suffered an economic loss following the breach of EU rules on State aids. Three kinds of scenarios are investigated: the action brought by a competitor towards the public authority who awarded the aid; the action brought by a competitor towards the beneficiary of the aid; and the action brought by the beneficiary towards the State for the damage suffered because of the recovery of the illegitimate aid. Whilst the first and third case can be framed in the more general State responsibility for the breach of EU law, the second is the least EU-related one since the Court of Justice denied, unlike what happened with Arts. 101-102 TFEU, a right to damage compensation directly derived by the EU law.