De Minimis Rule within the EU Internal Market freedoms : towards a more mature and legitimate market?

Abstract

Deriving from the former internal market Commissioner McCreevy’s statement that the internal market needs to become more decentralised, the article explores to what degree the de minimis rule applies or should apply to the internal market, discussing in the process the advantages and disadvantages of the transfer of this rule from the field of competition to the internal market law. Although there are some conceptual as well as practical problems related to the application of the de minimis rule to fundamental freedoms, the author concludes that in the field of the internal market law the de minimis rule increases the autonomy of national authorities thereby strengthening democratic decision-making in the EU which is conceived as a multi-level governance system. Through this rule the Member States preserve their competence in the domain of market law with respect to rules which do not formally discriminate between domestic and foreign goods, people and services, the aim of which is not to regulate trade between Member States and whose restrictive effects on the internal market are too uncertain and too indirect for the measure to present a breach of the TFEU.