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William Watson has contributed the Expert analysis chapter, "Fiscal State Aid: Mixed Messages" to The International Comparative Legal Guide - Corporate Tax 2022. In this chapter, William discusses the developments in a number of cases including high-profile State aid cases, such as Starbucks, Fiat, Apple, Amazon, ENGIE and the Commission’s challenge to the Belgian “excess profits” regime, highlighting how often the General Court (Europe’s court of first instance) has been overruled by the Court of Justice (“CJEU”, the highest EU court) in matters of fiscal State aid and how this contributes to the continuing theme of uncertainty of outcome.
The prohibition on State aid is contained in the main EU Treaty and is an understandable adjunct to the single market, designed to prevent Member States favouring domestic businesses (or inward/outward investment more generally). But in recent years the European Commission has shown that legislation and rulings in the tax sphere may be vulnerable in a way that would once have been unimaginable.
There will surely be more cases in the pipeline; it seems likely that tax rulings in particular will be a happy hunting ground for the Commission for some years to come.
This chapter appeared in the 2022 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide - Corporate Tax, published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London.
To view the online version, please click here.