The Measure Affects Competition

A state aid measure must distort or threaten to distort competition. It must actually or potentially strengthen the position of the aid recipient in relation to its competitors. Almost all selective aid measures have the potential to distort competition regardless of the scale of potential distortion or the market share of the aid recipient. A relatively small amount of aid or the relatively small size of the beneficiary of the aid does not as such exclude the possibility that intra-Community competition might be affected. According to established case law it is not necessary to assess whether competition is actually being distorted, but only to examine whether the aid could distort competition.