Brussels, Oct 1 (IANS) European Union (EU) regulators Tuesday announced that Apple Inc. enjoyed state aid from Ireland for many years via illegal tax agreements.

The European Commission expressed concern over tax rulings on the attribution of profits to a branch granted by Ireland to the Apple Group, composed of Apple Inc. and companies controlled by Apple Inc, Xinhua reported.

One of the issues in the case is tax rulings which validate transfer pricing arrangements, also known as advance pricing arrangements (APAs).

APAs are arrangements that determine, in advance of intra-group transactions, an appropriate set of criteria for the determination of the transfer pricing for those transactions over a fixed period of time.

"The commission is of the opinion that through those rulings, the Irish authorities confer an advantage on Apple," the European Commission said in a statement issued Tuesday.

The EU believes several multinational corporations such as Apple Inc. and Starbucks Corp enjoyed state aid through lower tax rates and abusing APAs.