EU Court Ruling on Apple Taxes, Ireland wins a historic case!
So, Apple has been told to pay back a huge €13bn in unpaid taxes to Ireland, thanks to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Basically, the EU Commission accused Ireland of giving Apple some unfair tax advantages a while ago, but Ireland kept saying that there was no need for Apple to pay anything back.
The court made a final call and agreed with the EU Commission’s decision from 2016, saying that Ireland gave Apple illegal aid, which they now need to get back.
This news came just a day after Apple dropped its new iPhone 16 range, so it’s a big moment for the tech giant.
Apple had something to say about it, though. They were like, “This case isn’t about how much tax we pay, but which government we should pay it to.” They also mentioned how they always pay the taxes they owe, and there’s never been any special deal. Apple was clear that they’re proud of driving growth and innovation, not just in Europe, but globally, and being one of the biggest taxpayers in the world.
This decision comes after years of back-and-forth legal stuff. The ECJ is finally upholding the 2016 ruling from the European Commission. The whole thing covers the period between 1991 and 2014, looking into how Apple handled taxes for two of its subsidiaries in Ireland. The problem was, other companies didn’t get the same tax breaks Apple did, which was deemed illegal.
Apple wasn’t too happy, saying the European Commission is trying to change the rules retroactively and pointed out that they already paid taxes in the US, as per international law. They were also pretty disappointed since the General Court had previously annulled this case in 2020.
The original ruling came when the European Commission was trying to crack down on big companies using creative ways to lower their tax bills. Now, Ireland has no choice but to recover those lost taxes from Apple, even though they’ve been fighting to avoid that for years.
On top of that, the ECJ also made another big call, telling Google to pay a fine of €2.4bn for abusing its market dominance with its shopping comparison service. Google had been fighting against that fine, which was originally handed out by the European Commission in 2017. But Google wasn’t so lucky, and like Apple, they’ve now reached the end of their long-running case.
Also Read: Justice Department Expands Antitrust Case to Google AI Market Control: Google Monopoly Case
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