EU Fines Finally Catch Up to Big Tech

Oh Danny Boy, the tax, the tax is calling…

On Tuesday, Apple lost a court case it’s been fighting for eight years over a €13 billion ($14.3 billion) EU tax bill, and on the same day Google lost an appeal against a €2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) antitrust fine. The EU has arguably landed the most regulatory body-blows on US Big Tech companies, but those companies have spent years appealing and dragging the rulings through the courts. Now it looks like they can’t kick the can any farther down the road.

The Tax Lady Cometh

Apple’s case dates back to a 2016 ruling from the EU, which found that Ireland had broken European rules on state aid by offering Apple too generous of a corporate tax break, and ordered the country to collect the €13 billion in back taxes. Google’s fine, meanwhile, stems from a 2017 antitrust ruling that found it had abused its dominant position as a search engine to give its shopping service an unfair advantage.

Both rulings were the result of actions brought by Danish EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, a Big Tech hawk whom former President Trump once dubbed Europe’s “tax lady.” Vestager, who’s been a commissioner since 2014, is due to step down soon because her political party in Denmark has lost power, but Tuesday’s rulings cement her legacy, and they’re only the first pebbles in the avalanche:

• Vestager fined Google a record-breaking $5 billion in 2018 for breaking antitrust laws with its Android operating system for phones. 
• On top of the actual pain of parting with billions, there’s the uncomfortable and restrictive precedents that the EU rulings set for the companies’ business practices. This comes as Google is facing a new antitrust trial from the US Department of Justice over its advertising tech.

Victory Lap: Bloomberg reported that Vestager waxed victorious following Tuesday’s Apple ruling, telling reporters: “It’s important to show European taxpayers that once in a while, tax justice can be done.”