Ruling on Portugal telecom golden share

The Portuguese State’s holding of ‘golden’ shares in Portugal Telecom constitutes an unjustified restriction on the free movement of capital, decided the Court today. The case is available here.

This follows a well-established line of case-law (see e.g., Joined Cases C‑282/04 and C‑283/04 Commission v Netherlands [2006] ECR I‑9141). Notwithstanding this case-law, it ought to be remembered that golden shares are still applicable in some countries' incumbent operators, such as in Italy.