EU State Aid Law and Consumer Protection: An Unsettled Relationship in Times of Crisis

Key Points
• The current flexibility offered in the State Aid law Temporary Framework has been used by some Mem- ber States’ governments to support undertakings, while, at the same time, governments have also toler- ated breaches of consumer protection rules, as it was the case of airlines.
• Such practices harm consumers and lead to double burden for consumers: once as purchasers of ser- vices and second, as taxpayers financing the state aid measures.
• The article assesses how state aid law and consumer protection rules interact in EU law and what lessons these interactions can provide for managing the cur- rent economic crisis in a way that takes equal account of consumer interests as required by the horizontal consumer protection clauses of the TFEU.
• By conducting two case studies (air transport and energy), the article offers an explanation how the coordination and enforcement of these two policies and legal fields can be managed in the current crisis but also beyond.