Apple has finally lost in a legal dispute with the European Union (EU) over tax benefits received in Ireland, resulting in a hefty fine of 130 billion euros (19.29 trillion won). This is the largest fine imposed by the EU competition authorities over the past 10 years. The EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, overturned a lower court ruling that Ireland had unfairly provided Apple with advantages, allowing the tech giant to pay much lower taxes than other companies for years. The European Court of Justice criticized the lower court judges for making incorrect decisions due to errors in the evaluation by the regulatory body. The EU has been cracking down on special deals offered by certain member states to large corporations. In 2016, the EU’s antitrust agency claimed that Apple had obtained illegal benefits from Ireland, resulting in the tech giant paying much lower taxes than other companies in Ireland for years. EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager ordered Ireland to recover 13 billion euros, which is roughly half of Apple’s global annual revenue. Ireland has claimed that it did not provide separate tax advantages to tech companies like Apple that set up operations in the country. The recent ruling may have a negative impact on Ireland, which has been attracting major tech companies’ European headquarters, but it is not expected to have a significant effect. The EU’s antitrust agency has been tracking sophisticated unfair tax benefits for large corporations over the past decade, with Amazon, Starbucks, and others also being targeted. Vestager, the head of the antitrust authority, has argued that selective tax benefits for large corporations constitute illegal state aid prohibited by the EU. Apple’s tax-related agreements with Ireland in 1991 and 2007 have been the focus of scrutiny by the EU. According to the EU’s assessment, Apple incorrectly attributed profits generated in Ireland to its “paper-only” US headquarters through these agreements, resulting in a significant reduction in tax payments. The EU antitrust agency has claimed that the tax benefits Apple received compared to other companies constitute anti-competitive and illegal state aid. In 2020, when Apple won in a lower EU court, the EU antitrust agency appealed to the EU’s highest court. Apple entered Ireland in the 1980s and early 1990s when the country significantly reduced corporate tax rates to attract foreign investment. Currently, Apple has its European headquarters on the outskirts of Cork in southern Ireland and employs about 6,000 people in Ireland. While multinational companies were able to avoid taxes due to Ireland’s significantly low corporate tax rate for a while, in 2021, Ireland joined the OECD agreement that stipulates a minimum tax rate of 15% for multinational companies. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook criticized the EU’s ruling as “pure political nonsense.” The US Treasury also criticized the EU for creating a “supranational tax authority” that could threaten global tax reform efforts and defended Apple.