The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

39 6.4. Aid approved under Article 107(2)(b) TFEU Article 107(2)(b) TFEU, as explained above, allows Member States to compensate the losses of businesses suffered as a result of the pandemic and the containment measures introduced in response. As the tourism industry has been widely marred by the pandemic and the administrative restrictions to fight it, this legal basis has been widely used to save businesses through aid granted to cover their losses. The examples below illustrate that Article 107(2)(b) aid gave an opportunity to Member States to help businesses subject to COVID-19 related administrative restrictions through various instruments as long as overcompensation would be avoided. The SA.58466 case 155 concerned a scheme introduced by the United Kingdom (the Scottish Government) to waive a property tax charged on business premises, including airports. The Commission’s decision recognised that between 1 March and 30 June 2020, Scottish regional airports suffered serious losses (their passenger levels dropped by close to 100% by April 2020 and their EBITDA by more than 100% in the eligible period, as compared to 2019) due to travel restrictions imposed by the United Kingdom and other countries. The authorities did not fully compensate the losses of the airports. They instead used the legal basis and the losses to provide, in the form of tax relief, partial loss coverage and help to maintain the viable operation of airports until travel resumes. The losses attributable to the containment measures (82.55 million GBP of losses in terms of EBITDA) comfortably covered the tax relied of 17.23 million GBP of tax relief afforded by the authorities. As the aid provides a relief from an entire year of tax, including a period that would start after the decision date, and in contrast, the losses are only calculated for a part of a year, the decision includes guarantees that overcompensation checks would be carried out. The SA.57217 case 156 is an example of aid granted to a sector whose troubles are partly a result of the tourism industry’s sudden decline. In the decision, the Commission 155 Commission decision C(2020) 8694 final of 2 December 2020 (SA.58466 (2020/N) COVID-19: Aid scheme for Scottish airports). 156 Commission decision C(2020) 3143 final of 8 May 2020 (SA.57217 (2020/N) NL LNV AGRI Compensation scheme agricultural and horticultural undertakings COVID-19).