EU Court Orders Google And Apple To Pay Billions In Fines And Taxes
Apple’s celebration of its Glowtime event yesterday, where the new iPhone 16, AirPods 4, and Apple Watch Series 10 were announced, was bookended by the court’s decision. Vestager, however, commented with a tweet on X, remarking “Today is a huge win for European citizens and tax justice.”
The European Commission ordered Apple in 2016 to pay 13 billion euros ($14.4 billion) in back taxes to Ireland. The order originated from what the Commission claimed was Apple benefiting from two Irish tax rulings for over two decades, which actually reduced the Cupertino-based company’s taxes to as low as 0.005% in 2014. It seems the EU’s top court agreed.
In the court ruling, the judges remarked, “The Court of Justice gives final judgement in the matter and confirms the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover.”
Apple said it paid $577 million in tax, 12.5% of the profit generated in Ireland, and was in line with the tax laws of the country in the period from 2003-2014 covered in the EU investigation. The company added in a statement, “The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the U.S.”
Google did not fare any better, with the company being ordered to pay the 2.4 billion euro ($2.4 billion) fine levied against the company by the European Commission in 2017. At the time, it was the largest penalty the Commission had ever imposed. The fine was handed down by the Commission, claiming Google abused the market dominance of its shopping comparison service.
The EU Court of Justice (ECJ) tweeted about its decision against Google, “ECJ upholds the fine of 2.4 billion (euro) imposed on Google for abuse of its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping service.” The ECJ added in its ruling that the Commission was right to find Google’s conduct “discriminatory” and its appeal “must be dismissed in its entirety.”
In a statement, Google remarked, “Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.” The rulings by the ECJ against Apple and Google are final and cannot be appealed.
