ECJ judges reject BMW appeal
July 29, 2019
The case dates back to 2014 when the European Commission said BMW should receive no more than €17 million ($18.9 million) in state grants to develop production of two electric and hybrid passenger cars in the eastern city of Leipzig.
The German state had planned to grant €45 million for the project to develop the i3 and i8 production lines, which was expected to create 800 jobs.
The Commission ruled that any amount above €17 million would be incompatible with EU internal market rules.
Read more: BMW faces lawsuit in US over alleged emissions cheating
In its ruling on Monday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) upheld that decision and rejected BMW's arguments that the Commission had made errors in the way it calculated the cost of the project.
BMW had previously lost a case before the General Court of the European Union, the bloc's second-highest, in September 2017.
BMW reported that it has invested €2 billion in the Leipzig plant where 5,300 employees build four models. About 245,000 cars came off the production line in 2018.
jm/msh (Reuters, dpa)
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