EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said today that she will appeal the high-profile Apple tax case in Ireland with the highest EU court.
Vestager said the EU General Court “made a number of errors of law” when annulling her 2016 decision ordering Ireland to recover €13 billion in unpaid taxes from Apple.
“For this reason, the Commission is bringing this matter before the European Court of Justice,” she said in a statement.
The Commission will in particular argue that the General Court in its ruling disregarded two legal principles essential to the case: the separate entity approach and the arms length principle.
Vestager emphasized that the court had confirmed she was entitled to use her powers to review selective subsidies to go after sweetheart tax deals for multinationals and said that the EU had to “continue to use all tools at our disposal to ensure companies pay their fair share of tax.”
She also said the EU needs to “continue [its] efforts to put in place the right legislation to address loopholes and ensure transparency.”
Showing she is willing to put up a fight, Vestager underlined her dedication to corporate tax reform ahead of a new digital tax proposal the Commission
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