• De minimis aid is mainly granted to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
• Last year, 253 thousand entities received such aid.
• Download the report from uokik.gov.pl

De minimis aid is state support granted to entrepreneurs, which does not require submitting notification to the European Commission. In accordance with the principle of Roman law: de minimis non curat lex (the law does not concern itself with small things), small aid does not distort competition on the market. However, the total de minimis aid value is limited. For one beneficiary, it may not exceed EUR 200,000 over a period of three fiscal years, for undertakings operating in the road freight transport sector - EUR 100,000, as compensation for services provided in general economic interest (e.g. postal services, passenger transport) - EUR 500,000.

- Every year, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) prepares two reports - on the so-called “large” public aid, mainly concerning the largest enterprises, and on “de minimis” aid, which is most often granted to companies from the SME sector. 67% of beneficiaries of de minimis aid are microenterprises - encouraged mainly by smaller amounts and simple aid granting rules. Aid is granted in various forms - for example, for research, investments, training, or as remission of real estate tax or social security contributions - says Marek Niechciał, President of UOKiK.

In 2018, under de minimis aid, PLN 5.85 billion was allocated to various entities (in 2017 - it was PLN 6.6 billion). 253 thousand companies benefited from this support. Aid granted under the Employment Promotion Act - i.e. for activation of the unemployed, co-financing of costs of continuing education - decreased by 40%.

The largest amount of support was granted by beneficiaries of operational programmes and regional programmes, as well as public entrepreneurs (PLN 1.19 billion). These include chambers of commerce, science and technology centres, foundations, development agencies, consulting and training companies, business incubators and other entities.

District governors granted PLN 1.09 billion, voivodeship marshals - PLN 835.7 million, and municipal heads and mayors - PLN 760.6 billion.

Most of the funds were received by micro businesses (PLN 3.93 billion). Small enterprises received PLN 1.15 billion, medium enterprises - PLN 512 million and large enterprises - PLN 262 million.

Competence of the President of UOKiK

Dear entrepreneur - you want to check if you can benefit from de minimiss aid? Go to https://sudop.uokik.gov.pl/ and search for your company in a special database. You will find out if you have received de minimis aid in the last three years and in what amount. De minimis aid for agriculture is monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The draft aid scheme providing for de minimis aid must be submitted to the Office. After analysing it, the President of UOKiK presents any possible reservations.

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