Rogério Fernandes Ferreira of RFF & Associados looks at the recent judgment from the EU General Court in the Apple case and considers its impact from an EU, and in particular a Portuguese, perspective.

The General Court of the European Union (GC) recently issued its judgment on the Apple case on July 15, 2020 (Case T-778/16, Ireland v European Commission, and Case T-892/16, Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe v Commission).

The General Court’s Decision
At issue were European Commission decisions according to which the tax rulings issued by Ireland to the Apple Group constituted state aid.

The tax rulings in question were issued on January 29, 1991 and on May 23, 2007, in favor of two Irish companies in the Apple group (Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe, “ASI” and “AOE” respectively). In particular, the tax rulings approved the methods used by ASI and AOE to determine their taxable profits in Ireland.