U.S. government could back Apple’s tax battle against E.U.

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France fines Apple $27 million for intention iPhone 'throttling' controversy
The E.U. fined Apple as massive $14.5 billion last year.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The U.S. government may intervene as Apple appeals its massive 13 billion euro ($14.52 billion) tax bill from the European Union.

The demand for money was made last year, after the E.U. ruled that Apple has taken advantage of illegal state aid in routing its profits through Ireland. It seems that the U.S. government doesn’t see entirely eye-to-eye with Europe, though.

The enormous fine was reportedly criticized by the Obama administration on the grounds that the E.U. was asking for money that should have wound up in the United States. The Trump administration has yet to publicly comment on the case.

According to a Reuters report, the U.S. has filed an application with the European Union General Court to intervene. Apple took its argument to the Luxembourg-based General Court back in December.

The case is likely to be heard in late 2018.

Targeting the tech giants

This isn’t the first time that the E.U.’s court decision has been criticized. Despite potentially benefitting from the fine, Ireland has officially come out in protest of it. The U.K. has also said it will happily welcome Apple if the company decides to set up shop there.

Current U.K. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson has additionally defended Apple. He went on to blast the European Commission competition directorate, Margrethe Vestager, as being a “crop-haired … Left-wing” ideologue for trying to frame this as a case of wrongdoing on Apple’s part.

Last week, the European Union fined Google 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) for reportedly skewing its search results in a way that hurts smaller shopping search services. This was the second major blow against Google in the E.U., following its loss of the “right to be forgotten” court case three years ago.

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