EU court rules Google, Apple must pay billions of euros in antitrust, tax cases

September 10 - A top European Union court on Tuesday told Google it would have to pay a €2.4 billion fine brought forth by the bloc's antitrust regulators seven years ago, just as the court rejected Apple's final legal challenge against an order from the European Commission to repay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland. 

A top EU court on Tuesday delivered two major victories for Brussels by ruling against Apple and Google in separate legal sagas with billions of euros at play.

The decisions give a boost to the bloc's outgoing competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, who had suffered a series of setbacks in EU courts against her decisions.

Concluding a long-running legal battle, the European Court of Justice, the bloc's highest court, ruled that the iPhone maker must pay 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in back-taxes to Ireland. 

"The Court of Justice gives final judgment in the matter and confirms the European Commission's 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover," the court said in a statement.

Minutes later, the court also upheld a 2.4-billion-euro fine against Google, one of a string of high-profile EU competition cases targeting the tech giant.

The court dismissed an appeal by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the fine, slapped on the search engine in 2017 for abusing its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping service.