Ireland referred to European courts over failure to collect €13bn from Apple

The Commission concluded last August that Ireland’s tax benefits to Apple allowed the company to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Under EU rules, the €13 billion in benefits must now be recovered in order to eliminate the “distortion of competition”.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “More than one year after the Commission adopted this decision, Ireland has still not recovered the money, also not in part.

“We of course understand that recovery in certain cases may be more complex than in others, and we are always ready to assist. But member states need to make sufficient progress to restore competition.

“That is why we have today decided to refer Ireland to the EU court for failing to implement our decision.”

Ireland had until 3 January 2017 to implement the Commission’s decision in line with standard procedures - four months from the official notification of the Commission’s decision. So far, Ireland has still not recovered any of the money and still intends to appeal the decision.

The Commission also said that while Ireland had made progress on “the calculation of the exact amount of the illegal aid granted to Apple, it is only planning to conclude this work by March 2018 at the earliest”.

The Commission therefore decided to refer Ireland to the Court of Justice for failure to implement the decision, in accordance with article 108(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Today, the Commission also concluded that Luxembourg granted undue tax benefits to Amazon of around €250 million.

Luxembourg has also now been directed to recover the illegal aid.