I fear you are right about the consequences of this ruling. I fear for the future of the nation state.

However, I suspect that this was inevitable with the concept of an integrated market. No one would expect that you cannot consolidate profits and losses between the Paris branch and the Lyon branch. What then for the Strasbourg and Freiburg branches?

This is why tax harmonisation has always been seen as an elephant in the corner of the room in some circles.

Now, I am not saying that it is impossible to write laws to fix this problem, but my cursory reading of the treaties over the years has always led me to believe that the way they were written made this kind of challenge very likely.