[kuschku]

Actually, that’s pretty much the point of the civil law system the EU uses, that the spirit of the law stands above the letter of the law, and if you violate the spirit of the law – even while abiding the letter of the law – you can be punished.

[Stranger43]

It's a bit simplistic a view the more complex reality is that the code civil(unlike the common law) doctrine have a "bonus pater"(or informed citizen) standard that puts an obligation on especially large(and supposedly competent) companies to proactively make sure they follow the law as it is not as they think it is.

I.E. apple's "but this guy down at the pub told us it was legal"* defence fails the bonus pater standard as apple highly paid legal council should have known better then accept it as a indication of actual law.

*In reality there was a unpublished letter from some politician, who did not actually have the authority to speak on irish tax law, to apple stating that Irish revenue would not challenge apple's claims about not owing Irish taxes on money in transit. though all evidence point to apple knowing full well that was not an indication that their tax sceme was legal.