EU court rules that Germany breached law over Deutsche Post aid

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that Germany had breached EU law in providing state aid to Deutsche Post as it had not sufficiently taken into account the business-to-business parcel delivery market. The European Commission in 2012 ordered Germany to recover from Deutsche Post incompatible aid granted since 2003 of between 500 million euros and 1 billion euro (370 million-0.74 billion pounds) from a combination of high regulated prices and pension relief subsidies. In 2013, the Commission took Germany to court for failure to recover this aid, which it said had given Deutsche Post an unfair advantage over its competitors. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)