Apple is ordered by the top court in Europe to pay Ireland $14 billion in unpaid tax, despite the Irish trying to get out of the deal.

The European Court of Justice has handed down a final judgment in an eight-year-old legal case and ordered Apple Ireland to pay an eye-watering EUR13billion ($14billion) in unpaid tax. In its ruling, the ECJ stated that it "confirms" the European Commission's 2016 verdict: Ireland gave Apple illegal aid which Ireland must recover.

The European Commission (EC), first accused Ireland in 2016 of giving Apple illegal tax benefits, claiming that between 1991 and 2014 all profits generated by Apple subsidiaries in Ireland had been booked creatively to tax purposes. The EC was not concerned with the arrangement, but rather that it was not available to any other company, creating an unfair advantage for Apple.

It was the Republic of Ireland that appealed this decision. The EC's decision, which was appealed in 2020, was overturned by ECJ. The ECJ has now ruled that the previous judgement was "legally incorrect" and that the Apple Group had benefited from it.

Apple has no choice but to accept the situation, so it is whining a little.

Apple's statement says: "This case was never about how much we pay in taxes, but to which government we must pay them." Apple says that it pays all taxes owed wherever it operates. There has never been any special deal.

The European Commission is trying retroactively to change the rules, and ignores that, as required under international tax law, the income we earned in the US was already subject to tax. We are disappointed by the decision today, as the General Court had previously reviewed the facts and categorically ruled this case out."

Cry me a River Baby! Ireland is against this tax windfall because it doesn't want Apple to upset its cart. Apple has a large campus in Cork, which is now in its fifth decade. It employs 6,000 people there (its global workforce is approximately 57,000). On top of that, it pays a substantial amount of corporation taxes (in 2022 the company paid $7.7billion on profits of $69.3billion).

The Irish government argued that Apple didn't need to pay back the unpaid taxes because the firm had made Ireland a more attractive location for large tech firms. The EU argued that this was a form of state aid and unfair subsidy. Ireland has accepted the final ruling of the ECJ and will now begin the process to collect the unpaid taxes.

The ECJ has also given Google a bit more of a shoeing. It ruled that Google must pay a fine of $2.65 billion (EUR2.4bn), for abuse of market dominance in relation to how it provided shopping comparisons to its users. This fine was first issued in 2017, and was at the time the largest ever imposed. Google has been appealing the decision ever since.

The ECJ released a press release confirming the fine is due. Google expressed disappointment with the ruling, saying that it "relates to a specific set of facts". We made changes in 2017 to comply the European Commission's ruling.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU's antitrust chief who has spent most of her time pursuing tax arrangements by Big Tech companies in the European Union, declared that "today is a big win for European citizens." "In its final judgment, [the ECJ] confirms the [EC] 2016 decision that Ireland provided illegal aid to Apple."

Both judgements are final. Go and fetch that tiny little violin.