Il caso Apple nel quadro della rilevanza dei tax rulings nella disciplina del divieto di aiuti di Stato

Confirming that even through tax rulings, Member States are able to attribute prohibited state aid to companies, the Court, with the ruling in question, pronounces on one of the most debated and complex cases of recent years in this matter. It leads to the annulment of the Commission's decision for not having proved the existence of the conditions for attributing all the business functions (and the consequent profits) to the Irish companies of the Apple group ("by exclusion" approach), nor of an advantage tax prohibited. According to the Court, when the Commission intends to compare the level of profit attributed to the company concerned and that achieved by another company operating under normal market conditions, it cannot disregard national rules to determine the "normal" taxation of a company integrated. If the internal rules equate the branches of non-resident companies to resident companies, the Commission can carry out this verification by applying the arm's length principle.