€13bn Apple judgment: Time to respect rule of EU law

The European Commission is taking Ireland to the European Court of Justice for its failure to recover up to €13 billion of tax due from Apple.

That decision is bound to involve legal costs to be borne by the Irish taxpayer and one that the Government and the commission could easily have avoided.

The decision to go to the ECJ is on foot of a ruling last year that Ireland granted Apple illegal state aid through deals that reduced the company’s effective corporate tax rate.