The European Commission said it has decided to appeal against a court ruling that struck down its order for Apple to pay billions in tax to Ireland. The Commission said it was an important case that could determine future decisions on illegal state aid and the General Court had made "a number of errors of law" in its judgment in July.
The initial decision dates back to 2016, when the Commission ordered Apple to pay EUR 13 billion in back taxes to Ireland. The advance tax rulings granted by the Irish government in 1991 and 2007 for Apple's European headquarters in the country helped Apple lower its tax rate on European profits to as little as 0.005 percent in 2014, the Commission found. It considered this to be illegal state aid under EU rules and ordered Ireland to collect the unpaid taxes from Apple for the years 2003-2014.
Ireland and Apple appealed the decision, and the General Court found that the Commission had not established any selective advantage given to Apple via advance tax rulings or that the income involved could be attributed to Ireland for tax purposes.
The Commission said the General Court judgment "raises important legal issues that are of relevance to the Commission in its application of state aid rules to tax planning cases". The Commission is pursuing several other, similar cases and is hoping to establish stronger legal precedents that discourage unfair use of the advance rulings to attract businesses to specific countries. Giving certain multinational companies tax advantages not available to their rivals harms fair competition in the EU and is prohibited by the bloc's state aid rules, the Commission said.
