State Aid & Internal Market Rules

Throughout an EC investigation for state aid and the breach of internal market rules, Brattle assisted Airport Handling, an Italian ground handling company. Our study analyzed whether the investment of an airport operator in Airport Handling was consistent with the behavior of a rational private investor or whether it constituted state aid. The analysis looked at the expected profitability of the investment and described the underlying economic logic based on the specific regulation and legal context of the industries involved. To this end, Brattle analyzed Airport Handling’s business plan and competitive position and the relative market size of handling services in Italy, and showed that a rational private market investor would have found it economically beneficial to invest in ground handling services of the Milan airport with high probability.