Discriminatory landing charges in Finnish airports

United Kingdom

The Commission has decided that Ilmailulaitos has infringed Article 86 of the Treaty of Rome which prohibits an abuse of a dominant position on the market by using its dominant position as Finnish Civil Airport Administrator (CAA) to impose discriminatory landing charges in Finnish airports according to the type of flight. The charges are based on whether the flight is domestic or inter-EEA. CAA is a self-financing public company operating under the Ministry of Transport and Communications. CAA levies charges for the services related to the landing and take-off of aircraft using the airport facilities that it administers. CAA is in a position of dominance in the market for landing and take-off services in respect of which the charge in question is levied, in each of the five Finnish airports with international traffic. This dominant position is a result of the exclusive rights granted to CAA under Finnish law. The Commission further considered that the five Finnish airports operating intra-EEA flights can be regarded as a substantial part of the common market. According to the Commission, the landing charge system has the effect of putting companies providing intra-Community flights at a disadvantage by artificially altering the companies’ costs depending on whether they operate domestic or intra-EEA services. This practice is discriminatory and distorts competition, in breach of Article 86 of the EC Treaty.