The General Court had dismissed an earlier challenge by Wizz Air of the state aid in May 2022, ruling that the loan was compatible with the internal market because it was intended to prevent social hardship or market failure that could be caused by a disruption of Tarom's services for the connectivity of Romanian regions, but Wizz Air appealed the judgment.
In the decision on Thursday, the CJEU dismissed that appeal and confirmed the judgment of the General Court.
The CJEU said the relatively limited size of the market at issue did not prevent a service provided there from being classified as important so that its disruption could give rise to serious social hardship or constitute market failure. The court also refuted Wizz Air's arguments as to whether Tarom would be replaced by its competitors on the domestic routes it operated exclusively.
In its case, Wizz Air had noted that it was the biggest airline in Romania in terms of share of seat capacity in 2019, with 40.8% on domestic routes, while Tarom's market share was just 15.3%.
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