Apple Wins Major Tax Battle Against EU
July 15 2020 - 4:47AM
Dow Jones News
By Valentina Pop and Sam Schechner
Apple Inc. won a major battle with the European Union, when the
bloc's second-highest court on Wednesday sided with the U.S.
company over a EUR13 billion ($14.8 billion) tax bill that EU
antitrust officials had said the company owed to Ireland.
The case stems from a 2016 decision by the European Commission,
the bloc's top antitrust enforcer, which said that Ireland must be
paid EUR13 billion in tax breaks from between 2003 and 2014, money
the commission said constituted an illegal subsidy under the bloc's
strict state-aid rules.
But in its judgement on Wednesday, the General Court said it
annulled the commission's decision because it had failed to meet
the legal standards in showing that Apple was granted an illegal
subsidy.
The decision earned then-competition commissioner Margrethe
Vestager the nickname "tax lady" from President Trump. Ms. Vestager
is still in charge of the bloc's competition law enforcement and
recently launched two antitrust probes into Apple. She is now also
responsible for tech regulation and is considering imposing a
digital tax on tech giants.
The European Commission can still challenge this ruling at the
bloc's top court, the European Court of Justice. In recent
comments, Ms. Vestager however pointed to the limitations of state
aid law in enforcing what she describes as "paying your fair share
of tax."
In a September hearing at the General Court, Apple lawyers said
the commission's decision "defied reality and common sense" and
Write to Valentina Pop at valentina.pop@wsj.com and Sam
Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2020 05:32 ET (09:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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