Goodbye, State Aid, Hello Subsidy Control

• Published date: 23 February 2021
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, International Law, Government Contracts, Procurement & PPP, International Trade & Investment
• Law Firm: Acuity Law
• Author: Barry Sankey

"State Aid" has been the bane of many publicly funded or supported projects for many years, and indeed it proved a major stumbling block for the deal between the UK and the EU that was settled only days before the transition period ended on 31 December 2020.

For those hoping that in the brave new world we could finally say farewell to "State Aid" and its bedfellows, General Block Exemption Regulation's (GBER) "de minimis" and so on, we're sorry to disillusion you, but the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement (UK-EU TCA) doesn't abandon the need to deal with the impact of public sector support for business and services in the UK, there's merely a change of name and the opportunity to re-jig the rules in the UK and establish a dispute process between the UK and the EU, should there be complaints about unfair competition.

The UK-EU TCA dealt very briefly with future State Aid (EU) and Subsidies (UK - moving to WTO parlance) and an indication that each party would look towards establishing a tribunal to manage disputes between the EU and the UK.

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