The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected an appeal to decide whether the European General Court should have annulled the European Commission’s decision in Andres re Heitkamp Holding v European Commission, C-203/16 P.

Whereby which the EC had categorised Germany’s loss carry-forward regulations as unlawful state aid; ordering it to recover the aid from the involved companies regardless of any open appeal cases. The carry-forward regulations were brought into power as an emergency measure during the 2008 financial crisis to allow folding companies to retain their tax write-offs even after a change of ownership.