Beihilfegewährende Forschungs- und Entwicklungsverträge

The essay deals with the legal consequences of state aid granting private law contracts breaching the prohibition under art. 108 para. 3 sentence 3 TFEU and scrutinises in consideration of the dispensation of justice of the European Court of Justice the applicability of the dispensation of justice of the German Federal Court of Justice on indirect state aids with special respect to research and development agreements between universities and industrial companies.
Building on these analysis contractual clauses for the drafting of research and development agreements in practice are being developed. Those clauses do not permit the circumvention of the prohibition, but pave the way to legal certainty as well as planning reliability by the conclusion of the contract complying with State aid rules and remove the “sword of Damocles” of the nullity hanging over research and development agreements.