The European Union (EU) scored a major breakthrough on Tuesday in its battle with the technology industry.
The EU has achieved a major success with the Supreme Court of the EU (Court of Justice of the European Union) ruling in an old case with Apple and Google.
EU regulators have long been cracking down on Apple and Google for stifling competition.
The ruling on Apple by the Court of Justice on Tuesday is related to the EU ordering the company to pay 13 billion euros (about $14.4 billion in today’s prices) in taxes to the Irish government in 2016.
It was alleged that an illegal agreement between Apple and the Irish government allowed it to do business in Europe with huge tax breaks. The EU ordered Apple to pay the amount to the Irish government for doing illegal work. The EU made such an order, claiming that Apple paid only 50 euros in tax for every 1 million euros in profits.
Apple argued that because it pays tax in the US, it does not have to pay tax in Ireland. After appealing to the General Court of the EU, it ruled in favor of the company in 2020. But the European Commission applied to the Court of Justice against the decision of the General Court. The Court of Justice ruled on that application on Tuesday and ordered Apple to pay the amount to Ireland.
Apple had put 13 billion euros in an ‘escrow’ account for Challengel, the case at the Court of Justice. Although Ireland has a tax exemption agreement with Apple and has sided with the company in this case, Ireland will now receive the amount from the escrow account.
In 2017, the EU decided to fine Google for prioritizing the results of its online shopping service when searching for the price of a product and not making it competitive. At that time, Google was fined 2.4 billion euros (about 2.65 billion dollars).
The Court of Justice has decided on a case related to this on Tuesday.
Google lost its appeal to the General Court of the EU in 2021. But he again applied to the Court of Justice against the decision of the General Court. The Court of Justice upheld the decision of the General Court on Tuesday and said that Google should pay the fine.
Google has been saying that after the order of 2017, by changing its algorithm, it has also started showing the results of competitive price comparison websites. But competitors are still accusing Google of taking advantage of its services.
Today’s ruling marks a significant breakthrough for the EU in its long battle with tech companies. On the other hand, this ruling will force companies to trade their products and services according to European rules.
