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Europe's highest court on Tuesday ruled against apple In a decade-long legal battle between the tech giant over its tax affairs in Ireland.
The European Court of Justice's ruling comes hours after Apple unveiled a raft of new products in an attempt to revitalize its iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPod ranges.
CNBC has reached out to Apple for comment.
“The European Commission is trying to change the rules retroactively and ignores the fact that our income was already subject to tax in the United States, as required by international tax law,” the company said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Apple shares were down 1% in pre-market trading at 09:52 a.m. London time.
In a statement, the Irish government said the Apple case “relates to a case of historical importance only,” adding that its position has always been that it “does not grant preferential tax treatment to any company or taxpayer.”
The government has indicated that it will now begin the process of transferring the assets in the guarantee fund to Ireland.
The case so far
In turn, the Commission appealed the General Court's decision, and referred the case to the European Court of Justice.
The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday to overturn the General Court's decision and uphold the Commission's original ruling in 2016.
The case, which initially began under outgoing competition chief Margrethe Vestager, highlights the ongoing struggle between US tech giants and the EU, which has sought to address issues ranging from data protection to taxation and antitrust.
This wasn’t the last time Apple found itself in the EU’s crosshairs. Most recently, the European Commission slapped Apple with a €1.8 billion ($1.99 billion) antitrust fine in March for abusing its dominant position in the music streaming app distribution market.
Separately, the EU’s sweeping Digital Markets Act has forced companies to change some of their practices in Europe. The Commission has opened various investigations under the Digital Markets Act into tech giants, including Apple, Alphabet and Meta.
