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apple shares fell about 1% in pre-market trading on tuesday after the tech giant lost a legal battle over 13 billion euros ($14.4 billion) in irish taxes, one day after its fall event.

the european union's top court ruled on tuesday that a lower court ruling in favor of apple should be overturned because the judges wrongly concluded that european commission regulators made mistakes in their assessments. the eu's top court found that ireland had violated state aid laws by giving apple an unfair advantage.

in a separate ruling, the european union's top court upheld a 2.42 billion euro fine imposed by eu antitrust officials on alphabet's google over the way its comparison shopping service was presented in search results.

the irish government later said in a statement that the issues involved in the apple tax case are a thing of the past, and they insist that they treat all companies and taxpayers fairly and do not give apple special tax benefits. "ireland's position has always been that ireland does not provide tax preferential treatment to any company or taxpayer."

the ruling marks a victory for competition regulators, and the eu's top court's decision is final, meaning apple cannot appeal again.

the decisions also highlight the eu's tough stance on big tech companies, which in recent years has expanded to sweeping regulations to curb their expansion.

meanwhile, apple said it was "disappointed" with the ruling. a company spokesperson claimed: "we pay all taxes we owe wherever we operate and there are no special deals."

alex haffner of fladgate law firm said apple would now have to pay €13bn in back taxes and, perhaps more importantly, there would once again be a sense that eu authorities and courts were prepared to flex their muscles if necessary to bring big tech companies to heel.

case background

in 2014, the european commission launched an investigation into apple's tax payments in ireland, the tech giant's eu headquarters.

in 2016, the european commission ruled that ireland needed to pay apple 13 billion euros in taxes and believed that ireland had provided apple with illegal tax breaks over the past 20 years.

apple and ireland appealed the european commission's decision in 2019, and in 2020 the eu general court sided with the us tech giant apple. the judges of the court said that the european commission, the eu's antitrust enforcement agency, did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that apple obtained illegal tax breaks.

in may 2023, the eu competition regulator appealed to the eu's highest court, requesting an overturn of the eu general court's ruling.

the tax case against apple is part of eu antitrust commissioner margrethe vestager's crackdown on deals between multinationals and eu countries. vestager has said ensuring all companies, big and small, pay their fair share of tax remains a priority for the commission.

vestager said in a statement on tuesday: "today is a huge victory for european citizens and tax justice. the european commission will continue to work on harmful tax competition and aggressive tax planning."

this won’t be the last time apple is targeted by the european union. earlier this year, the european commission fined apple 1.8 billion euros for abusing its dominant position in the music streaming app distribution market.

apple responded that the european commission did not provide any credible evidence of consumer harm and ignored the reality of a booming, competitive and rapidly growing market. apple will appeal the eu's ruling.