European Commission v Ireland and others

The European Court of Justice of the CJEU (ECJ) issued its judgment in European Commission v Ireland and others (Case C- 465/20) (10 September) an appeal against the General Court’s judgment in Joined Cases (T- 778/16 and T- 89216) upholding an action for annulment of the Commission’s decision of 30 August 2016 concerning selective tax breaks granted to Apple (Ireland) (SA.38373) (the Commission’s 2016 decision). The ECJ set aside the General Court’s judgment and confirmed the Commission’s 2016 decision that Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is now required to recover.

In 1991 and 2007 Ireland issued two tax rulings in relation to two companies within the Apple Group (Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations Europe (AOE)) incorporated under Irish law but not tax resident in Ireland. The rulings approved the method by which ASI and AOE...