The Austrian goodwill case: treaty freedoms and state aid

On 16 April 2015 Advocate General Kokott issued her opinion in the so-called ‘Austrian goodwill’ case of Finanzamt Linz v Bundesfinanzgericht Aussenstelle Linz (C-66/14) (reported in Tax Journal 24 April 2015). The AG’s opinion is noteworthy for two reasons. First it addresses the knotty question of the interaction between the fundamental treaty freedoms and the state aid rules in circumstances where a cross-border transaction attracts less favourable tax treatment than the corresponding domestic transaction. Second it may provide insight into how the CJEU could decide the Spanish goodwill cases (Autogrill (C-20/15) and Santander (C-21/15)) in which the Commission has...