The Commission, which is also the EU competition watchdog, in a 2018 decision said the French utility s tax deal that treated the same transaction as both debt, which can be deducted from a tax bill, and equity, which is not subject to tax, artificially reduced its tax bill.
EU Tax Order: The European Union s General Court in 2020 upheld Apple s challenge, saying that regulators had not met the legal standard to show Apple had enjoyed an unfair advantage.
An EU Court of Justice adviser has ruled that a lower tribunal that sided with Apple in its challenge against a $14 billion EU tax order made a series of legal errors and should review the case again. The case was part of EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager s crackdown on deals between multinationals and EU countries deemed unfair state aid.
The tax case against Apple was part of EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager s crackdown against deals between multinationals and EU countries which regulators saw as unfair state aid.