Nails it. Though there may be a case to be answered regarding Ireland's tax arrangements with Apple and other MNCs, the crux of this is the EC overreaching their mandate.

I find it hard to see this as anything other than good old tax-avoidance. There is no other reason for having these kind of structure other than to avoid paying taxes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

By allowing these kind of structures the Irish government have harmed both the average tax-payer in the Us and Eu.

Kudos to the EC for going after them!

And not very impressive by Ireland and Apple to publicly protest the decision, while not allowing the full report to be published.

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In response, the Danish politician called on Apple and Ireland to allow the release of the confidential ruling so that people could see the detail behind the commission’s arguments.

“If it was up to me, the confidential version would have been published yesterday,” said Ms Vestager.

“I hope that Apple and Ireland will be as open and cooperative as possible in order to let us publish the decision as fast as possible. It is very good for everyone to see our reasoning.”

https://www.ft.com/content/a8b7e363-64ac-394d-9a69-68e65d32e...

That's exactly what it is, and it's an area over which the EC does not have jurisdiction. Hence spinning it, unproven, as a competition issue.