Sea Srl v Comune di Ponte Nossa C-573/07
Court of Justice of the European Communities (Third Chamber), Judges Rosas (President of the Chamber), O Caoimh, Cunha Rodrigues (Rapporteur), Klucka and Arabadjiev, 10 September 2009.
It is not contrary to Arts 43 EC and 49 EC, the principles of equal treatment and of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality or the obligation of transparency arising therefrom for a public service contract to be awarded directly to a company limited by shares with wholly public capital so long as the public authority which is the contracting authority exercises over that company control similar to that which it exercises over its own departments and so long as the company carries out the essential part of its activities with the authority or authorities controlling it.
Following a tendering procedure, the claimant in the main proceedings was awarded the contract for the service of collecting, transporting and disposing of solid urban and similar waste in the territory of the Comune di Ponte Nossa, for 2004 to 2006.
Another company, “Setco”, was a company limited by shares, owned by a