Brussels, September 22, 2025 – German casino operator Merkur Spielbanken NRW GmbH has filed an action before the EU General Court (GC) seeking annulment of a European Commission decision that ordered Germany to recover a €64.8m ($76.1m) capital injection deemed to constitute illegal state aid.
In November last year, the EC found that the 2015 recapitalisation of former state-owned casino group WestSpiel was incompatible with the internal market. The agency concluded that the capital injection conferred an economic advantage on WestSpiel, as the decision to inject additional capital in a company despite its continuously negative financial situation was not one that a comparable private investor would have chosen.
In the challenge lodged on August 1, the appellant relies on five arguments seeking the annulment of the EC decision, as published in the EU Official Journal.
The company argues that the EC committed manifest errors in assessing whether the capital injection conferred an economic advantage. It claims the Commission wrongly viewed the measure in isolation, misapplied the market economy investor principle (MEIP), failed to consider structural disadvantages under the Spielbankgesetz NRW (2012), and ignored alternative legislative solutions that could have produced the same effect. Merkur also disputes that State resources were involved.
The operator also contends that the EC wrongly identified WestSpiel as the aid beneficiary when the seller benefited from the market-price sale. It further argues that the recovery order is flawed because WestSpiel had already repaid €46.5 million of the capital injection in 2021.
The authority allegedly failed to assess whether the capital injection constituted privatisation aid eligible for approval, according to the challenge.
In addition, the EC did not respect principles of independence, impartiality, proportionality, and consistency in its review and failed to provide adequate reasoning at multiple stages of its decision.
Merkur Spielbanken is represented by lawyers Helmut Janssen and Daniela Salm of Luther.
The case is T-531/25 Merkur Spielbanken NRW v Commission before the General Court.
Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:C_202504986
