Court bars insolvent steelmaker from energy aid for large consumers

The Court of Justice has confirmed that energy-intensive undertakings placed under Italy's extraordinary administration scheme count as "undertakings in difficulty"Europa and may therefore be shut out of national relief schemes for high gas and electricity consumersEuropa.

The ruling answers two references from the Regional Administrative Court for Lombardy in disputes between Acciaierie d'Italia SpA (ADI), the parent company of Italy's leading steel group, and the Energy and Environmental Services Fund (CSEA). ADI was placed under extraordinary administration under Decree-Law No 347/2003 and declared insolvent by the Milan Insolvency Court on 29 February 2024Europa. On 14 November 2024 it applied for inclusion on the 2025 lists of undertakings with high electricity consumption and high gas consumption, which would have given it the support provided for by Article 3 of Decree-Law No 131/2023 for electricity and by Article 21(1) of Law No 167/2017 read with Ministerial Decree No 541/2021 for gas, as in previous years. By decisions of 17 December 2024 CSEA rejected both applications on the ground that ADI, being under extraordinary administration, was an undertaking in difficulty within the meaning of point 20(c) of the Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring non-financial undertakings in difficulty.

The Court holds that Article 107(3)(c) TFEU, read with those Guidelines, does not preclude national legislation that excludes undertakings under the extraordinary administration scheme from these energy benefits on that groundEuropa, since admission to the scheme is conditional on the insolvency of the undertaking.

Point 20(c) treats an undertaking as in difficulty where it is subject to collective insolvency proceedings or fulfils the domestic criteria for being placed in such proceedings at the request of its creditorsEuropa. Extraordinary administration meets that test: under Article 1 of Legislative Decree No 270/1999 it is the collective procedure applicable to large commercial undertakings in a state of insolvencyEuropa, and admission requires a prior judicial declaration of insolvency, a point the referring court must verify against Articles 3 and 27 of that decree and Articles 1, 2 and 4 of Decree-Law No 347/2003.

That the scheme aims at the continuation, relaunch or transformation of the business does not take the undertaking outside the conceptEuropa. The rescue and restructuring Guidelines themselves exist to restore viability, so a restorative purpose cannot negate difficulty statusEuropa. Extraordinary administration (amministrazione straordinaria) is moreover expressly listed among the insolvency proceedings in Annex A to Regulation (EU) 2015/848Europa.

The Court also rejects the argument that losing pre-existing energy relief aggravates the undertaking's distress. Energy aid of this kind is not rescue or restructuring aid: under point 23 of the Guidelines, an undertaking in difficulty cannot be regarded as an appropriate vehicle for other public policy objectives until its viability is assured, and aid to such undertakings contributes to economic development without harming trade only if the Guidelines' conditions are met. Italy had simply aligned its energy-aid rules with the environmental and energy Guidelines, which bar energy aid to undertakings in difficulty.

For practitioners, the consequence is direct: operators under extraordinary administration, and by extension undertakings subject to comparable collective insolvency proceedings, cannot claim high-consumption gas or electricity relief reserved to healthy undertakingsEuropa, and any energy aid to them must satisfy the rescue and restructuring conditions insteadEuropa.

Legal basis: Article 107(3)(c) TFEU, read with points 20(c) and 23 of the Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring non-financial undertakings in difficulty.