Apple has been ordered to pay €13bn (£11bn) to Ireland after losing a decade-long fight with the European Union over “sweetheart” tax breaks.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Tuesday that Apple had benefited from years of illegal state aid by receiving unfair tax support from the Irish government.
Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition chief, had ordered the company to pay Ireland the fee in 2016 after a two-year investigation. However, the ruling had been overturned by a lower EU court in 2020 after Apple appealed the case.
The CJEU is the EU’s highest court, meaning the decision cannot be appealed and the funds will now have to be released to the Irish government. They have been frozen in an escrow account since 2018.
The decision is a boost for Ms Vestager’s tax crackdown on US multinationals after she was previously defeated in a separate case involving Amazon before the CJEU.
In its latest ruling, the CJEU said: “On appeal, the Court of Justice sets aside the judgment of the General Court and gives final judgment in the matter, conversely confirming the Commission’s decision.”
In 2016, Ms Vestager said the Irish tax authority had allowed Apple to benefit from tax rates as low as 0.005pc since 1991, meaning it underpaid billions of euros in taxes.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, had called the original ruling “total political crap”.