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china news service, brussels, september 10 (reporter de yongjian) the european court of justice, the highest judicial body of the european union, made a final ruling on the eu's lawsuit against apple for huge tax evasion on the 10th, ruling that the irish government used taxation as a national resource to provide improper benefits to apple, and apple should pay an additional 13 billion euros in taxes to the irish government.

the european court of justice, headquartered in luxembourg, announced its final ruling on the same day, confirming the overturning of the 2020 eu general court's ruling that "apple does not need to pay back taxes" and supporting the 2016 european commission's decision that "apple should pay back taxes", namely, apple used the tax agreement reached with the irish government to evade taxes on a large scale, and apple should pay back 13 billion euros in taxes to the irish government.

in its ruling, the european court of justice stated that the 2020 ruling of the general court of the european union contained errors, such as the european commission "failed to adequately prove" that apple used the tax agreement reached with the irish government to evade taxes, the european commission's "incorrect assessment" of the tax rate applicable to this case, and the "incorrect identification" of the operating activities of apple's irish subsidiary. therefore, the ruling of the general court of the european union was overturned and the decision of the european commission was supported.

the european court of justice's final ruling puts an end to the years-long battle between apple and the european union. in 2016, the european commission, as a regulatory agency, determined that apple had used the tax agreement reached with the irish government to evade taxes on a large scale and demanded that apple pay 13 billion euros in back taxes. both apple and the irish government expressed dissatisfaction with this and took the case to the general court of the european union.

in 2020, the general court of the european union ruled that the european commission failed to adequately prove that the irish government used taxation as a national resource to provide improper benefits to apple. therefore, the european commission's decision was invalid and apple did not need to pay 13 billion euros in back taxes to the irish government. afterwards, the european commission believed that the general court's ruling contained many "errors" and took the case to the european court of justice, the highest judicial body of the european union.

regarding the final ruling of the european court of justice, an apple spokesperson said on the 10th that apple did not reach a special agreement and the european commission tried to "retroactively adjust" the tax law. the irish ministry of finance said that ireland did not provide tax benefits to any company, and pointed out that apple had deposited 13 billion euros in taxes into an escrow account, and the final ruling of the european court of justice was only of "historical significance."

in recent years, the european commission has frequently cited the "prohibition of state aid" clause to crack down on tax evasion by multinational giants in europe. in addition to apple's tax evasion case, the european commission has also launched investigations into tax agreements reached between fiat and the luxembourg government, starbucks and the dutch government, ikea and the dutch government, and nike and the dutch government. as a result, starbucks and fiat were required to pay 20 million to 30 million euros in back taxes respectively. the tax evasion cases of ikea and nike are still under investigation. (end)