The European Court of Justice has quashed a 2010 decision by the EU General Court that had found that the French government's offer of a EUR 9 billion credit line to France Telecom in 2002 did not constitute illegal state aid because it was not implemented by the operator. The ECJ found that the proposed loan nevertheless conferred an advantage granted through state resources that could potentially have burdened the state budget. The ECJ decided that the General Court erred in law and sided with a 2004 decision by the European Commission. The EC and France Telecom rival Bouygues Telecom had appealed the General Court's findings. The ECJ has referred the case back to the General Court.
