The case

The decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against Apple and Google are significant milestones in the EU’s fight against anti-competitive behaviour by large tech companies.

Source: European Court of Justice (ECJ) & international press

The commentary

Apple has been sentenced by the EU Commission to pay € 13 billion to Ireland. The sum is the result of years of abuse of tax breaks, which the EU Commission considers to be illegal state aid. Ireland had granted Apple extremely low tax rates through a special agreement, which distorted competition.

In the EJC’s other ruling Google was fined € 2.4 billion because the company had exploited its dominant market position in the online search engine sector. In this instance, the case was about Google favouring its own comparison service for products in search results, which put other providers at a disadvantage and thus marked a breach of European competition law.

The judgements of the ECJ confirm the original decisions of the EU Commission and underline the EU’s determination to take action against abuse by large multinational corporations.

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