35The judgments of 17 July 2014, Nordea Bank Danmark (C‑48/13, EU:C:2014:2087), and of 17 December 2015, Timac Agro Deutschland (C‑388/14, EU:C:2015:829), cannot be understood, however, as meaning that, where national tax legislation treats two situations differently, they cannot be regarded as comparable. The Court held that the application of different tax rules to a resident company depending on whether it has a resident permanent establishment or a non-resident permanent establishment cannot be a valid criterion for assessing the objective comparability of the situations (see, to that effect, judgment of 22 January 2009, STEKO Industriemontage, C‑377/07, EU:C:2009:29, paragraph 33). Moreover, to accept that a Member State may in all cases apply different treatment solely because the permanent establishment of a resident company is situated in another Member State would deprive Article 49 TFEU of its substance (see, to that effect, judgment of 25 February 2010, X Holding, C‑337/08, EU:C:2010:89, paragraph 23). Consequently, the comparability of the situations must be assessed with regard to the purpose of the national provisions at issue, in accordance with the case-law cited in paragraphs 32 and 33 above.
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