State aid — from tax relief to loans and guarantees — acts directly on market competition, and that is precisely why the Law on Competition subjects its grant to special control. The architecture of this page follows the statute itself: prohibition first, then exceptions, the agreement procedure, and the right to challenge granted aid.
The Rule: What Is Prohibited
Article 12 sets the general rule: prohibited is state aid in any form, to an economic agent or to a particular kind of activity, which impedes competition or creates a threat of its impediment. The concept of aid is broad: exemption from, reduction of or deferral of tax, write-off of debt, restructuring, loans on favourable terms, transfer of assets, monetary assistance, guarantees of profit and other benefits.
Article 3 defines the players: an economic agent is a person who, regardless of residency, carries out entrepreneurial activity, while the grantor of state aid is an organ of the state, of an autonomous republic or of a municipality — and also a non-commercial legal entity, a public-law legal entity, an enterprise in which the state’s participating share exceeds 50 per cent, or an intermediary economic agent acting in the state’s name.
The Exceptions: What Needs No Agreement
The statute names the exceptions precisely. Permitted without an agreement with the agency are: social assistance granted to an individual consumer, provided it does not discriminate against the producer of the relevant goods or services; the elimination of the consequences of a natural disaster or force majeure; environmental measures; the exercise of a right or performance of an obligation provided by a legislative act or an international agreement; individual state aid of minimal significance; and a major state project where the government has so decided.
With the agency’s agreement, aid that does not significantly restrict competition may be permitted where granted for the economic development of particular regions or for promoting culture and cultural heritage. The threshold of minimal significance is determined by government decree.