Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

‘air carrier’ means an air carrier as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 7 ) ;

‘air transport service’ means a flight or a series of flights carrying passengers, cargo or mail for remuneration or hire;

‘interested party’ means any natural or legal person, or any official body, whether or not it has its own legal personality, that is likely to have a significant interest in the result of proceedings, including, but not limited to, air carriers;

‘Member State concerned’ means any Member State:

which granted the operating licence to the Union air carriers concerned pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008; or

under whose air transport agreement, air services agreement or any other agreement containing provisions on air transport services with the third country concerned, the Union air carriers concerned operate;

‘third-country entity’ means any natural or legal person, whether profit-making or not, or any official body whether or not it has its own legal personality, which is under the jurisdiction of a third country, whether controlled by a third-country government or not, and is directly or indirectly involved in air transport services or related services or in providing infrastructure or services used to provide air transport services or related services;

‘practices distorting competition’ means discrimination and subsidies;

‘threat of injury’ means a threat for which development into injury is clearly foreseeable, very likely and imminent, and which can be attributed beyond reasonable doubt to an action or decision by a third country or a third-country entity;

‘discrimination’ means differentiation of any kind without objective justification in respect of the supply of goods or services, including public services, employed for the operation of air transport services, or in respect of their treatment by public authorities relevant to such services, including practices relating to air navigation or airport facilities and services, fuel, ground handling, security, computer reservation systems, slot allocation, charges, and the use of other facilities or services employed for the operation of air transport services;

‘subsidy’ means a financial contribution:

granted by a government or other public organisation of a third country in any of the following forms:

a practice of a government or other public organisation involving a direct transfer of funds, potential direct transfer of funds or liabilities (such as grants, loans, equity infusion, loan guarantees, setting-off of operational losses, or compensation for financial burdens imposed by public authorities);

revenue of a government or other public organisation that is otherwise due is foregone or not collected (such as preferential tax treatment or fiscal incentives such as tax credits);

a government or other public organisation, including publicly controlled undertakings, provides goods or services, or purchases goods or services;

a government or other public organisation makes payments to a funding mechanism or entrusts or directs a private body to carry out one or more of the type of functions referred to in points (i), (ii) and (iii) which would normally be vested in the government and, in practice, in no real sense differs from practices normally followed by governments;

conferring a benefit; and

limited, in law or in fact, to an entity or industry or group of entities or industries within the jurisdiction of the granting authority;

‘Union air carrier’ means an air carrier with a valid operating licence granted by a Member State in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008;

‘Union air carrier concerned’ means the air carrier which is allegedly subject to an injury or a threat of injury pursuant to point (b) of Article 4(1).

REGULATION (EU) 2019/712 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 April 2019 on safeguarding competition in air transport, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 868/2004