Apple fought this case for a decade, but finally lost it

After years of courtroom battles and billions of dollars at stake, Apple has finally lost its epic tax case against the European Union, as reported by Bloomberg Law.

The tech giant’s lawyers have been duking it out with EU regulators since 2014, when the European Commission first accused Apple of getting an unfair tax deal in Ireland. According to the EU, Ireland let Apple pay way less tax than other companies – we’re talking a measly 0.005% rate in 2014. Yeah, you read that right.

Apple and Ireland both cried foul, insisting everything was above board. But EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager wasn’t having it. In 2016, she dropped a bombshell order: Apple had to cough up 13 billion euros (about $14.4 billion) in back taxes.

Naturally, Apple didn’t take this lying down. CEO Tim Cook blasted it as “total political crap,” and the company lawyered up big time. They actually managed to win round one in 2020, when a lower EU court sided with them. But Vestager and her team appealed, and now the EU’s top court has spoken – Apple lost. This development comes in just hours after Apple took the wraps off its latest iPhone 16 series.

So what does this mean? Well, Apple’s going to have to fork over that eye-watering sum, which has been sitting in a holding account gathering dust (and interest) all this time. It’s a huge win for Vestager, who’s made cracking down on sweetheart tax deals her mission in Brussels.

For Ireland, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. They’ve always insisted they didn’t give Apple any special treatment, worried about scaring off other big tech companies. But let’s be real – this case has dragged on so long that Ireland’s already tightened up a lot of its tax rules anyway.

As for Apple, they’re “disappointed” (shocker), but this probably won’t put much of a dent in their massive cash pile. Still, it’s got to sting to lose after fighting tooth and nail for a decade.

The bigger picture? This ruling could shake things up for how tech giants structure their European operations. One thing’s for sure – this isn’t the last we’ll hear about big tech and taxes. But for now, Apple’s legal team might want to take a vacation. They’ve earned it. With this news, it seems like Apple is having a rough time in Europe. Why? Well, the company is struggling to bring its new AI features dubbed Apple Intelligence to iPhone users in the European Union as well. So Apple does indeed have a lot of uphill legal battles that need to be sorted in the region. Only time will tell how Apple fares!