The European Court of Justice has confirmed the legitimacy of multibillion-dollar fines for tech giants Apple and Google, strengthening the EU’s position in the fight against monopolies.
The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled against Apple and Google in cases of tax benefits and abuse of dominant market position. The court upheld the previous decisions of the European Commission, according to which Apple has to pay €13 billion in taxes to Ireland and Google has to pay a fine of €2.4 billion for violating antitrust laws.
These decisions were a significant victory for European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. She has made Apple and Google the main targets of her campaign for tax justice and fair competition since 2014. Vestager has insisted that selective tax breaks for large companies constitute illegal state aid, which is prohibited in the EU.
Apple representatives expressed disappointment with the court’s decision, recalling that a lower court had previously overturned the decision. Today, the company’s shares fell by 1.3% in pre-market trading in New York. Google also expressed dissatisfaction with the court’s decision, noting that their 2017 proposal to address the EU’s concerns helped increase the number of clicks for other shopping services.
The case against Apple began in 2016, when the EU ordered Ireland to recover €13 billion in unpaid taxes. Apple CEO Tim Cook then called this decision «a complete political junk». The case against Google began in 2017 with a fine for abusing its dominant position in the search engine to promote its own products.
These court decisions could have far-reaching implications for the regulation of the tech industry. They support the new EU law on digital markets that came into force last year. This law sets rules for large tech companies, including prohibiting them from favoring their own services over those of competitors.
Source: Bloomberg