The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that the United States may not intervene in the Apple state aid case, thus upholding a decision on the EU General Court rendered on December 15, 2017.
The Apple dispute stems from an August 30, 2016, EU Commission decision that resulted in an additional €13 billion (USD 15.3 billion) in taxes being owed by Apple’s Irish subsidiaries to Ireland.
In its decision, the EU Commission concluded that Ireland granted State aid to the Apple subsidiaries, artificially lowering the subsidiaries’ Irish taxes through overly generous private tax rulings issued in 1991 and 2007. Under EU law, the State aid must be paid back to Ireland.
The Apple subsidiaries, in an action, brought December 19, 2016, sought to annul the Commission decision.
The US later sought to intervene in the case, claiming that US tax revenues would be affected by the massive Irish tax recovery since US foreign tax credits would offset US tax collected on Apple’s future repatriation of the subsidiaries’ profits. At the time, US tax reform, with its deemed repatriation provisions, had not yet entered into force.
EU General Court denied the US’s request to intervene in the case, which has now been upheld by CJEU in a May 17 ruling.
According to the CJEU, the United States has failed to establish the existence of a direct interest in the result of the case. The US failed to prove that Apple had or would repatriate the offshore profits and thus does not have an interest, the court said.
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