Apple case: the ECJ lower court says the Commission failed to show "to the requisite legal standard" that Apple enjoyed preferential treatment which amounted to illegal state aid.
Court statement: According to the General Court, the Commission was wrong to declare that [Apple Sales International] ASI and [Apple Operations Europe] AOE had been granted a selective economic advantage and, by extension, State aid...
Statement continues: "The General Court endorses the Commission’s assessments relating to normal taxation under the Irish tax law applicable in the present instance, in particular having regard to the tools developed within the OECD, such as the arm’s length principle,
"...in order to check whether the level of chargeable profits endorsed by the Irish tax authorities corresponds to that which would have been obtained under market conditions."
"However, the General Court considers that the Commission incorrectly concluded...that the Irish tax authorities had granted ASI and AOE an advantage as a result of not having allocated the Apple Group intellectual property licences held by ASI and AOE...
"and, consequently, all of ASI and AOE’s trading income, obtained from the Apple Group’s sales outside North and South America, to their Irish branches."
In other words, the Commission was wrong to say that by not including a tax liability for profits earned thru intellectual property generated elsewhere Ireland had granted Apple an advantage
The court says the Commission should have shown that that income represented the value of the activities actually carried out by the Irish branches themselves, in view of the activities and functions actually performed by the Irish branches of ASI and AOE, on the one hand...
and the strategic decisions taken and implemented outside of those branches, on the other."
In other words, the Commission shd have shown that design, development of iphones etc was reflected in the activity of the Irish subsidiaries + that they should have been taxed accordingly
In other words, the Commission shd have shown that design, development of iphones etc was reflected in the activity of the Irish subsidiaries + that they should have been taxed accordingly
