On March 28, 2019, in Germany v. Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) annulled a decision by the European Commission and set aside the General Court’s judgment concerning orders for Germany to recover aid it had given certain industries that were heavy users of energy in the form of an exemption from a green energy surcharge in 2012. The case concerns a German law in which the state guaranteed producers of electricity from renewable sources a higher than market price, supported through a surcharge on energy suppliers. Germany capped the surcharge for customers who were part of “electricity-intensive undertakings in the manufacturing sector” such as aluminum and copper with the aim of maintaining their international competitiveness. In 2014, the European Commission determined the reductions on the surcharge Germany had granted heavy energy users were illegal state aid and ordered Germany to recoup about 5 billion euros of the discount, which the General Court confirmed in 2016. As noted in the press release, the CJEU held that “the General Court was wrong to find that the funds generated by the EEG surcharge constituted State resources” and that “that the Commission failed to establish that the advantages provided for by the EEG 2012 involved State resources and therefore constituted State aid.”