> You can just ignore deals because you (EU) said so?
Of course you can, because EU law has precedence over Ireland's deal in this situation.
Of course you can, because EU law has precedence over Ireland's deal in this situation.
At the same time, if bureaucrauts in Ireland were a bit smarter they could have just written in a special exemption for companies with certain specific requirements - which end up being Apple and a few big ones.
Apple was also pretty dumb to go to Ireland while Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria offer pretty low taxes out of the box. I guess they did that to access UK talent / lower language barrier even if the fiscal setup was riskier.
That's not how the law works. The courts look at the intent behind the law, the spirit of the law, as well as the text.
It might take longer and more argument but would eventually be struck down as well.
This really is demoralizing how they set rules for small guys but then give big incumbent companies everything they want.
Apple (uniquely) having a near zero tax rate is considered illegal state aid to a company. Private companies are supposed to operate on the same terms within each European country.