EU court rules against Apple in tax case, upholds fine vs Google
This story was originally published at 20:05 IST on 10 September 2024
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NEW DELHI – The Court of Justice of the European Union today upheld a 2016 decision of the European Commission that had ruled that the Apple Group had, from 1991 to 2014, received tax advantages that constituted "unlawful" state aid granted by Ireland. According to the commission's estimates, Ireland had given illegal tax benefits worth 13 bln euros or 1.20 trln rupees to Apple.
In a separate case, the Court of Justice upheld a fine of 2.4 bln euros or 220 bln rupees imposed on Google for abuse of its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping service.
APPLE CASE
In 1991 and 2007, Ireland had issued two tax rulings in favour of the Apple Group's two companies – Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe. Both the companies were incorporated in Ireland but not a tax resident in Ireland. The tax rulings by Ireland approved the methods used by the two companies to determine their chargeable profits in Ireland in relation to the trading activity of their respective Irish branches.
In 2016, the European Commission said the tax rulings by Ireland had conferred on the Apple companies state aid that was unlawful and incompatible with the internal market, and from which the Apple Group as a whole had benefited. The commission, therefore, ordered Ireland to recover the aid. However, this ruling was overturned by the General Court of the European Union. Today, the Court of Justice upheld the commission's ruling.
GOOGLE CASE
In 2017, the European Commission imposed a fine of about 2.4 bln euros on Google for having abused its dominant position in several national online search markets by favouring its own comparison shopping service over those of its competitors. The commission had found that in 13 countries of the European Economic Area, Google had given preference on its general search results pages to the results of its own comparison shopping service over those of competing comparison shopping services.
Thereafter, Google and Alphabet challenged the commission's decision before the General Court of the European Union. In 2021, the General Court dismissed Google and Alphabet's plea and upheld the fine. Consequently, the two parties moved the Court of Justice of the European Union. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Avishek Dutta
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