Margrethe Vestager had "prepared" for "defeat." "It was a win that made me cry," said the Competition Commissioner after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in favor of the European Commission against Apple on Tuesday, September 10. Ireland has "granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is obliged to recover," the Court ruled, adding that the judgment is "final." In concrete terms, the Cupertino-based group must repay Dublin €13 billion for undue tax benefits it received between 2003 and 2014, which can indeed be likened to illegal state aid.

In this case, the Dane, who after 10 years at the Commission is due to step down by the end of the year, had a large part of her legacy at stake. During her first term of office, between 2014 and 2019, Vestager waged a relentless battle against tax evasion by multinationals who profited handsomely from the accommodating tax regimes of Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland. Regardless of the fact that tax policy falls within national jurisdiction, the "tax lady," as she was scornfully renamed by US President Donald Trump, opened many investigations, judging that illegal state aid had been given.

European courts have since often ruled against her. The American coffee chain Starbucks, the automotive group Fiat, the French energy company Engie and the American online retail giant Amazon have all had Commission decisions against them overturned. The Apple case, the most significant in terms of the amounts at stake – €13 billion – also seemed to be off to a bad start. In 2020, Apple had seized the European Union Court which ruled in first instance to overturn the Commission's 2016 decision.

Against this backdrop, Vestager, once known for her offensive stance, lost some of her pugnacity. During her second term of office, the competition commissioner abandoned her fight against tax breaks for multinationals while awaiting the outcome of the legal proceedings. "In recent years, the Commission has been very reluctant to look at cases that deserved to be considered," said Benoît Le Bret, partner at Gide Loyrette Nouel and specialist in EU law.

In November 2023, Vestager regained hope when the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, to which the Commission had appealed, considered that in 2020 the court had "committed several errors of law," and asked that the Apple case be retried on its merits. Tuesday's ruling brings this eight-year legal saga to a close, allowing the Commissioner to leave with her head held high.

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