An EU Advocate General has recommended overturning a first-stage ruling on a successful challenge to the European Commission’s finding that Apple should pay Ireland over €13 billion plus interest in allegedly unpaid taxes.

Professor Suzanne Rab was interviewed on BBC World Service where she discussed the significance of the opinion in this long-running EU State aid case.

Suzanne commented on the Advocate General’s view that the European Commission had made a “series of errors of law” in its reasoning and where it had taken an approach to allocating profits of Apple’s Irish operations which was inconsistent with economic reality and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). She stated that the opinion is not binding on the Court of Justice in law, but that such opinions tend to be followed in the large majority of decisions.

Listen to the interview here.