Oxera has developed a framework for the European Commission that can be used to assess the competitive effects of state aid. The framework also provides insight into the actual impact of state aid on competition. Oxera Partners, Nicole Robins and Enno Eilts, co-authored the following piece for KNect365 Comp Law.
The framework outlines how to assess the impact of aid and then provides examples of how it can be applied in real world cases. It is based on the following three questions.
- What are the main characteristics of the aid and the affected markets?
- What are the potential effects of state aid on competition?
- What is the actual impact of aid on competition?
In applying the framework, Nicole and Enno define the three main drivers of the likely effects of state aid on competition:
- the size of aid;
- the frequency of aid;
- the breadth of aid.