It never ends.
An advisor to the highest court in the European Union has made a non-binding ruling that
Apple’s
legal victory in a seven-year-old tax spat should be set aside, making the tech company’s $15 billion problem look like a risk once again.
Giovanni Pitruzzella, advocate general for the EU’s Court of Justice, said Thursday that the lower General Court’s previous ruling in favor of
Apple
(ticker: AAPL) “should be set aside,” telegraphing how the bloc’s top court may rule in a decision expected next year.
The European Commission in 2016 ordered Ireland—the tax-friendly European home of many U.S. tech giants—to claw back some €13.1 billion from Apple, calling its tax advantages illegal state aid. Ireland collected €14.3 billion ($15.3 billion) from Apple in 2018, a sum representing back taxes and interest that has since been held in escrow.
The EU’s General Court ruled in favor of Apple’s appeal in 2020, before the commission escalated the case to the Court of Justice. Now, that court’s advisor, in the form of advocate general Pitruzzella, has said the General Court “committed a series of errors in law,” including methodological errors.
$15 billion is no paltry sum, even to the world’s most valuable public company. While the 2020 ruling made it look like Apple would get its $15 billion back, Pitruzzella’s foreboding opinion suggests otherwise, returning uncertainty to the iPhone maker and keeping alive a landmark case for the EU’s tough-on-tech regulators.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron’s.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com
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