Apple told to pay Ireland €13bn in tax after losing EU court fight

Apple has lost a high-profile, €13bn (£11bn) Irish tax battle with Brussels in a decision that will bolster the European Commission's efforts to clamp down on favourable "sweetheart" tax deals for multinationals.

- Jane Croft

The European court of justice (ECJ) ruling, which had been eagerly awaited, comes after years of legal wrangling over whether the European Commission was right to demand in 2016 that €13bn in "illegal" tax breaks for Apple should be repaid because it gave the iPhone maker an unfair advantage.

The ECJ ruled that a lower court win for Apple should be overturned and backed the commission's 2016 decision that Ireland had granted Apple unlawful aid relating to the tax treatment of profits generated by its activities outside the US, which Ireland is now required to recover.

In 2020, the general court, a lower court, annulled the commission's 2016 decision, saying it had not sufficiently established that Apple's subsidiaries had enjoyed a selective advantage. That ruling has now been set aside by the ECJ.