Apple suffered a setback on Thursday when a judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled it could be forced to pay Ireland 13 billion euros in back taxes under a ruling by Brussels, AFP reported.

In a non-binding opinion usually followed by judges, the CJEU’s advocate general recommended a retrial of the seven-year dispute between the iPhone maker and the European Commission, casting doubt on the US giant’s victory in the case. first instance

The Luxembourg court will have to decide in the coming months whether to follow this advice or not.

The case dates back to 2016, when Brussels ordered the American giant to return 13 billion euros to Ireland, considering it a tax cut, which is illegal state aid.

The amount corresponds to the benefits obtained from the favorable tax regime between 2003 and 2014 in this country, where Apple repatriated all its revenues generated in Europe (as well as in Africa, the Middle East and India).

The EU General Court overturned the European Commission’s decision in 2020, but Apple later appealed to the CJEU.

“In his Opinions, Advocate General Giovanni Pitrucella proposes that the Court set aside the decision and return the case to the Court of First Instance for a new decision on the merits,” the ECJ said in a statement published on Thursday.

According to the Advocate General, “the trial court made several legal errors” and it “needs” to “make a fresh assessment.”

During a hearing at the Court in May, a lawyer for the European executive, Paul-John Löwenthal, effectively claimed “violations of procedure” and “numerous other errors of law” by the General Court of the EU.

It found that Apple’s Irish subsidiary paid an effective rate of tax on its European profits “ranging from 1% in 2003 to 0.005% in 2014”.

Illegal state aid?

Leventhal quoted an Apple executive who specifically described the tax breaks provided by Dublin to the US Senate as “investment incentives tantamount to state aid.”

Apple’s lawyer, Daniel Bird, insisted that Apple received “no preferences” and “no government aid” in Ireland. He said the Cupertino, California-based group had paid taxes in Ireland on its profits earned in Ireland in accordance with the country’s tax rules.

The CJEU is the last instance. He makes a decision not on the merits of the case, but only on questions of law. Based on the recommendation of the Advocate General, he may decide to confirm or annul in whole or in part the decision of the first instance or decide to return the case to the General Court of the EU.

Apple did not comment on the decision, but on Thursday referred to the decision of the first instance in its favor. “The court’s decision was very clear: Apple did not receive any electoral advantage or government assistance, and we believe this decision should be upheld,” the group said in a statement.

“Ireland’s position has always been that Irish tax was paid in full and that Ireland did not provide any state aid to Apple. Now we are waiting for the decision of the Court of the European Union on this matter,” said the Minister of Finance of Ireland, Michael McGrath.

For its part, the European Commission reiterated that it does not comment on current court cases.

Brussels is battling multinational corporations in a series of similar tax cases. In particular, the EU has failed in the European courts against Fiat (the Stellantis group), Amazon and Starbucks in disputes in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.