Apple has been given one mighty smack on the wrists by the European Commission. The technology giant has been ordered to pay back around £11 billion in unpaid taxes to the country of Ireland, all following the country being accused of giving Apple illegal tax breaks between 1991 and 2014.
According to the BBC, in 2016 Ireland gave Apple “unlawful aid” which the EU is now requiring Ireland to recover, something that the country has said it will respect the ruling of. Apple however is clearly less pleased and has claimed that the EU has been “trying to retroactively change the rules.”
The unlawful aid itself was said to have happened between 1991 and 2014 and revolved around the way that Apple generated profits in Ireland using two subsidiaries created for tax exemption purposes. This was looked at by the EU in 2016 and was eventually thrown out, however in 2020 it was picked back up and now a decision has been made that legal errors have been made, meaning Tim Cook and Apple will need to get out their cheque books to pay the outstanding tax.
It should be said that even though £11 billion can go a long way, Ireland is hesitant to accept the money as it claims the loss was worth the effort it went to toward making the country appear appealing to tech giants and larger companies.
This also comes as Google was hit with a ruling on Tuesday requiring the rival tech company to pay back £2 billion for “market dominance abuse”.