In the ongoing battle within the EU to regulate multinational corporations, led by European Union antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, Apple has been ordered to pay Ireland €13bn ($14.4bn) in back taxes, while Google has been fined €2.4bn ($2.7bn) for antitrust violations.

Vestager, who has made a name for herself going after Big Tech’s tax arrangements within the EU, said in a post on X, “Today is a huge win for European citizens and tax justice.”

One bad Apple

The case against Apple goes back to 2016 when the European Commission accused the company of receiving illegal tax benefits from Ireland.

According to the Commission, Apple’s subsidiaries in Ireland paid a much lower tax rate than other companies — as low as 0.005% in 2014 — a practice that violated EU state aid rules.

The Irish government, however, sided with Apple, arguing that the arrangement was lawful, stating that its low corporate tax rate is an essential tool in attracting foreign investment.

In 2020, the General Court of the CJEU issued a judgement annulling the Commission’s case, but the Commission appealed the judgement, and the Court has now ruled its 2016 decision stands.

In an official statement after the latest judgement, the Irish Department of Finance said: “The Irish position has always been that Ireland does not give preferential tax treatment to any companies or taxpayers.”

Apple vehemently denied the European Commission’s accusations, insisting it complied with both US and Irish tax laws.

“This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to,” an Apple spokesperson said. “We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate, and there has never been a special deal.”

The iPhone 16 manufacturer maintained that its income was already subject to taxation in the US and that the Commission was trying to rewrite the rules retroactively.

Despite this, the Court ruled in favour of the Commission, and Apple must now repay the taxes.

In Google, we antitrust

The case against Google dates back to 2017 when the European Commission fined the company for abusing its online shopping comparison market dominance.

According to the Commission, Google gave preferential treatment to its own comparison-shopping service, disadvantaging smaller rivals.

The fine was the EU’s largest antitrust penalty ever issued at the time, totalling €2.4bn ($2.7bn) — until 2018, when the EU fined Google €4.3bn ($4.75bn) for abusing the dominant position of its Android mobile operating system to promote Google’s search engine.

Google has consistently contested the EU’s decision, arguing that its practices improved the quality of its services for consumers.

The company adjusted its shopping service in 2017 to comply with the EU’s ruling but continued to appeal the fine.

In a statement, Google said of its adjustments: “Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.”

Despite these efforts, in its latest ruling, the Court solidified the Commission’s stance that Google abused its market position and that it was right to find Google’s conduct “discriminatory” and its appeal “must be dismissed in its entirety.”

Google faces another similar trial in the UK as a London court has argued that Google should pay £13.6bn in a lawsuit over whether it has too much influence on the online advertising market.

Who EU gonna call?

The cases were undoubtedly being closely observed across the EU as a significant moment for Big Tech’s European tax affairs — especially as the EU’s investigations between companies and member states have faced setbacks.

Just last year, Amazon successfully defended its tax arrangements in Luxembourg in a court battle, and the Commission similarly lost a case involving the Netherlands’ tax treatment of Starbucks, though it chose not to appeal.

The post EU strikes a blow against Apple and Google in landmark rulings appeared first on TechInformed.

Judge Amit Mehta found that Google violated section 2 of the Sherman Act, a US antitrust law.

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” he said.

The Department of Justice and a number of US states brought the case against Google in 2020.

It presented that Google paid companies such as Apple and Samsung billions of dollars a year to automatically default to its search engine.

Apple received $18billion, according to The New York Times.

Plus, Samsung received $8billion over four years to make its search engine, voice assistant and Play Store the default on its mobile devices, according to a testimony presented by Epic Games Inc.

Google’s fate will be finalised in the next phase of proceedings, which may mean a mandate to stop certain business practices or even a breakup of Google parent Alphabet.

Nevertheless, Google plans to appeal the ruling. Kent Walker, president of global affairs pointed to the ruling’s acknowledgement that Google “offers the best search engine,” yet it “concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

“As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use,” he said.

“This landmark decision holds Google accountable,” DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan said in a statement. “It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans.”

It’s the latest blow to Google after a federal jury in California found that its app marketplace is an illegal monopoly.

Plus, it faces a separate case from the DOJ and a handful of states accusing its online advertising business of dominating the market, too.

The post Google illegally dominated online search, US judge rules appeared first on TechInformed.