Apple loses EU court battle over 13 billion euro tax bill in Ireland

Europe's apical tribunal connected Tuesday ruled against Apple successful the tech giant's 10-year tribunal conflict implicit its taxation affairs successful Ireland.

The pronouncement from the European Court of Justice comes hours aft Apple unveiled a swathe of new merchandise offerings, looking to revitalize its iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPod line-ups.

In 2014, the European Commission, the European Union's enforcement arm, opened an probe into Apple's taxation payments successful Ireland, the tech giant's office successful the EU.

The Commission successful 2016 ordered Dublin to retrieve up to 13 cardinal euros ($14.4 billion) successful backmost taxes from Apple, astatine the clip saying that the tech institution had received "illegal" taxation benefits from Ireland implicit the people of 2 decades.

Apple and Ireland appealed the Commission's determination successful 2019, and successful 2020 the EU General Court sided with the U.S. tech giant. The EU's second-highest tribunal anulled the Commission's 2016 decision and said that the enforcement limb did not beryllium that the Irish government had fixed Apple a taxation advantage.

The Commission successful crook appealed the General Court's decision, sending the litigation up to the ECJ.

The case, which archetypal began nether outgoing contention main Margrethe Vestager, highlights the continued struggle betwixt U.S. tech giants and the EU, which has sought to tackle issues from information extortion to taxation and antitrust.

This was not the past clip that Apple recovered itself successful the EU's crosshairs. Most recently, the Commission deed the iPhone shaper deed Apple with an antitrust good of 1.8 cardinal euro ($1.99 billion) successful March for abusing its ascendant presumption successful the marketplace for the organisation of euphony streaming apps.

Separately, the EU's sweeping Digital Markets Act has forced companies to alteration immoderate of their practices successful Europe. The Commission has opened various investigations nether the DMA into tech giants, including Apple, Alphabet and Meta.