According to the EU court, the EU Commission was not allowed to approve the German government's billions in aid for Lufthansa during the pandemic. This was announced by the judges on Wednesday in Luxembourg. The verdict can be appealed to Europe's highest court, the European Court of Justice.

The travel restrictions during the pandemic had brought Lufthansa's business to a virtual standstill. In the group with around 138,000 employees, tens of thousands of jobs were at risk. That's why the German government supported Germany's largest airline with an aid package worth billions in spring 2020. In return, Lufthansa had to commit itself to avoiding distortions of competition, for example by giving up take-off and landing rights in Frankfurt and Munich to its competitors.

The rescue plan envisaged that the state economic stabilization fund would subscribe to shares in the course of a capital increase in order to build up a 20 percent stake in the airline's share capital. In addition, silent participations of up to 5.7 billion euros and a loan of up to three billion euros were planned. However, the latter was not subject to the conditions and had in principle already been approved beforehand.

The EU Commission approved the aid of six billion euros in June 2020. Lufthansa's competitors Ryanair and Condor defended themselves against this decision of the EU Commission before the General Court of the EU.

The judges partially agreed with them. The EU Commission had made several mistakes in its assessment. On the one hand, it wrongly assumed that Lufthansa would not be able to obtain the necessary funds on the markets. In addition, it failed to recognise Lufthansa's considerable market power at certain airports. Accordingly, the obligations imposed on the undertaking did not ensure that effective competition was maintained.