European Commission Decision 2020/4/EU

Basis of the Case
The European Commission launched a secondary probe into the tax affairs of American multi-national Facebook which concluded in the third quarter of 2020. The probe's conclusion was that the Irish government must collect €3bn from Facebook in back taxes. The special tax arrangement that Facebook has with Ireland, that now counts as state aid, has been ordered to end.

The European Commissioner for Competition & Consumers, Margrethe Vestager, who had been given documents pertaining to this case and initiated the probe announced after the decision and has stated that “The era of American Multinationals avoiding tax with the aid of European States is over, if you want access to our markets you must obey our rules”.