Kommissionen havde udtrykkelig anvendt dette bedømmelseskriterium i sin beslutning 2000/392/EF: »En måde til at sikre en passende forrentning af den investerede kapital havde derfor været at øge delstatens andel i WestLB i samme omfang, såfremt bankens samlede rentabilitet svarer til den normale forrentning, som en markedsøkonomisk investor forventer af sin investering.
According to Germany, the Commission expressly laid down this assessment criterion in Decision 2000/392/EC: ‘Therefore, one way of ensuring an adequate return on the capital provided would have been to increase the Land’s participation in WestLB accordingly, provided that the bank's overall profitability corresponds to the normal rate of return that a market-economy investor would expect from his investment.