Since 2012, the European Commission (‘Commission’) has implemented the State Aid Modernisation Agenda (‘SAM’). Under the SAM, the Commission has streamlined and consolidated a number of guidelines. A package of legislation has also strengthened the Member States’ responsibility and increased cooperation between the Commission and Member States in the field of State aid enforcement.
As a result, Member States grant more aid without prior control by the Commission. The Juncker Commission has put particular focus on this matter and since 2015, more than 96% of new aid measures for which expenditure was reported for the first time was covered by the General Block Exemption Regulation (‘GBER’) — an absolute increase of about 28 percentage points compared to 2013. The Commission, for its part, has enhanced the downstream monitoring to ensure that Member States remove distortions to competition by recovering the aid which is paid in breach of the State aid rules. This is an important part of the Commission’s overall enforcement agenda.
Featured News
Apple Loses Supreme Court Bid to Pause Epic App Store Proceedings
Aug 13, 2026 by
CPI
Australia Reworks Big Tech News Levy After Publisher Backlash
Aug 13, 2026 by
CPI
PayPal Ends Federal Antitrust Challenge to Merchant Payment Rules
Aug 13, 2026 by
CPI
EU Antitrust Regulators Clear Atlas-KPS Battery Deal
Aug 13, 2026 by
CPI
Romania Fines Seed and Crop-Protection Firms $18 Million in Price-Fixing Case
Aug 13, 2026 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Antitrust Compliance
Jul 20, 2026 by
CPI
Your Antitrust Compliance Program: A Strong Voice in Your Defense
Jul 20, 2026 by
Joe Murphy
Antitrust Compliance for the AI Pricing Era
Jul 20, 2026 by
Alejandra Uria & Andre Geverola
Race to Report: Antitrust Leniency in the Whistleblower Era
Jul 20, 2026 by
Brian R. Faerstein & Nicole H. Sprinzen
Antitrust-By-Design: Competition Compliance in Digital Markets
Jul 20, 2026 by
Marcos Drummond Malvar, Gabriela Costa Carvalho Forsman & Luciana Mendes