An adviser of the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) stated that the ruling of the EU General Court on the case against Apple should be reviewed, as the court made legal errors in its judgement in favour of the American tech giant in its long-standing tax dispute with Brussels.
The General Court took its decision in 2020, overturning a European Commission’s decision in 2016 against Apple. The tech company was fined for 13 billion euros. The Commission said that Apple benefited from two Irish tax rulings that can be classified as unfair state aid, leading the US company to pay taxes as low as 0.005% in 2014.
According to the decision by the General Court, regulators headed by antitrust EU chief Margrethe Vestager failed to show that Apple enjoyed the advantage under articles of law.
However, on Thursday Advocate General Giovanni Pitruzzella released a non-binding opinion that called CJEU judges to dismiss the ruling and send it back to court.
Pitruzzella stated that the General Court failed “to assess correctly the substance and consequences of certain methodological errors that, according to the Commission decision, vitiated the tax rulings.”
The EU top court is set to rule on the case in the coming months. Usually the court follows four out of five recommendations published by its advisers in the form of non-binding opinion.
