Dr. Jim Stewart:

Apple was going to appeal. It has significant resources and could easily finance the appeal itself. It was in its interests to appeal. The State should have stepped back and said we made a mistake but we are now willing to stick to state-aid rules. The arrangement with Apple was deemed to be illegal. If the EU had found out about this some years ago, it would have been illegal then. The reason it remained illegal is because no one knew about it. The best way to do something illegal is not tell anybody. No one knows about it and, therefore, it remains legal because due process cannot take place. That is one of the problems with this particular state-aid case.