The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) heard an appeal by the Irish Government against a decision of the European Commission requiring car manufacturer Fiat Chrysler to repay approximately €30 million to Luxembourg on the grounds of State aid. According to reports in the Irish Times and Irish Independent, the Irish Government is appealing on a third party basis against the finding of the General Court of the European Union in September 2019 because the General Court’s judgement has relevance to Ireland’s State aid Apple case.

According to media reports, the Department of Finance says that Ireland has joined the appeal against the General Courts decision because several novel legal principles invoked by the European Commission in fiscal State aid cases will be heard by the CJEU as part of the Fiat Chrysler case. The Irish Government believes that the CJEU’s lower court erred in law and misapplied legislation governing state aid in its approach to the arm’s-length principle. It claims the ruling breached the principle of legal certainty by agreeing that the Commission could review decisions of national tax administrations by referring to the Commission’s version of the arm’s-length principle which it argues is unpredictable and whose content is unknown. The Government also claims the ruling on Fiat Chrysler impermissibly used State-aid rules to harmonise direct taxation rules in EU member states.