Apple, Google Left with Empty Pockets by European Justice Ruling
With unpaid taxes and fines, two US tech giants will have to pay €15.4 billion in unpaid taxes and fines
On Tuesday, September 10, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the EU’s highest court based in Luxembourg, ruled that “Apple must pay Ireland 13 billion euros in unpaid taxes.” The debt relates to the period between 2003 and 2013, ten years during which the California company “took advantage of a favorable tax regime that allowed it to pay less tax for its operations in the European Union.”
Following the unveiling of Apple’s new gadgets, including the iPhone 16, equipped with artificial intelligence for the first time, the court defined Ireland’s assistance to Apple as “unlawful” and said its verdict was a “final judgment on the matter.”
According to the European press, “the verdict has thus put the word ‘end’ to a case that lasted almost a decade, brought as part of a series of investigations aimed at verifying whether it was illegal for some EU member states, notably Ireland and Luxembourg, to offer preferential tax treatment to foreign multinationals as their European headquarters.”
And after Apple, again on Tuesday, the long arm of the Court of Justice of the European Union also reached out from Luxembourg to Google, accused of “abusing its dominant position to favor its shopping comparison service over those of other competitors.” The US tech giant will have to pay a €2.4 billion fine, which was issued by the European Commission in 2017 following a lawsuit opened in 2009 by Foundem. Google appealed, but the court held that Google’s conduct was in fact “discriminatory” and therefore dismissed the appeal “in its entirety.”
This is not the first time Google has been in the crosshairs of European justice: after a €2.4 billion fine – the highest ever issued by the European Commission – in 2018 this “record” was broken again in a lawsuit against Google, whereas Brussels fined it another €4.3 billion “for unfairly promoting its applications.” A year later, in 2019, Google was fined another €1.5 billion for blocking “competing ads on search engines.” Google has appealed both cases, which are being heard by the EU Court of Justice.
