Ryanair: France must recover illegal state aid, EU says

(CercleFinance.com) - EU regulators on Friday ordered France to recover 8.
5 million euros in illegal state aid granted to Ryanair following a complaint made by one of the Irish budget airline's competitors.

Between 2010 and 2017, French local authority APFTE concluded various marketing agreements with Ryanair, under which the airline received around 8.5 million euros in exchange for promoting Montpellier and its area as a touristic destination on Ryanair's website, the European Commission said.

The payment in favour of Ryanair to promote Montpellier airport gave Ryanair an unfair and selective advantage over its competitors and harmed other regions and regional airports, which is illegal under EU state aid rules.

Ryanair now has to return the 8.5 million euros, Brussels said.

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