The European Union scored two major legal victories on Tuesday in separate cases that left Apple and Google owing billions of euros.
Brussels has been fighting giant tech firms for years on issues from data privacy to disinformation.
– Taxation –
Tuesday’s victory over Apple is a huge reversal of fortune for the European Commission, which has had little success in arguing that tech firms broke the law by funnelling profits into low-tax economies like Ireland and Luxembourg.
The EU’s top court made a final ruling that the iPhone maker must pay 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in back taxes to Ireland, upholding a 2016 commission decision that a sweetheart deal between Apple and the Dublin government was illegal.
The commission is fighting a similar case against Amazon, which also won an appeal against an order to repay 250 million euros in back taxes to Luxembourg.
– Stifling competition –
Brussels has doled out over 10 billion …