brussels the eu suffered a major setback in its effort to curb profitshifting as a european court annulled an order that apple repay ireland 13 billion euros 15 billion in back taxesthe commissions historic ruling against apple was delivered in august 2016 by competition commissioner margrethe vestager in a shock decision that put europe on the map as a scourge of silicon valleythe iphonemaker and ireland had appealed the order which apple ceo tim cook slammed at the time as total political crapvestager was derided as europes tax lady by us president donald trump because of the case as well as a series of antitrust fines she imposed on googlethe clear cut decision by the eus general court could now face another appeal at the top european court of justice with a decision expected no earlier than 2021 but vestager said only that brussels was studying the judgementthe eu in 2016 accused ireland of allowing apple to park revenue earned in europe africa the middle east and india and sparing it almost any taxationbrussels said this gave apple an advantage over other companies allowing it to avoid irish taxes between 2003 and 2014 of around 13 billion euros 14 billioneu officials argued that constituted illegal state aid by irelandbut the eu court said the commission did not succeed in showing the requisite legal standard that there was an advantagethe commission was wrong to declare that apple units based in ireland had been granted a selective economic advantage and by extension state aidapple welcomed the decision and reiterated that the profits in question were always intended to go to the united states and not irelandthis case was not about how much tax we pay but where we are required to pay it an apple spokesman said in an email to afpwere proud to be the largest taxpayer in the world as we know the important role tax payments play in society apple addedirish finance minister paschal donohoe said he welcomed the outcome in a case that affected our reputation while this ruling was being pursuedit has always been clear that the correct level of tax was charged and no state aid was provided he addedvestager said the eu would carefully study the judgement and reflect on possible next steps which could include an appealthe commission stands fully behind the objective that all companies should pay their fair share of tax she addedsome observers have expressed doubts on the apple case wondering whether the eu was right to use antitrust law to crack down on tax optimisation strategies by multinationalsin similar cases the same eu court struck down an order by brussels that starbucks pay 30 million euros in back taxes to the netherlandsin a separate decision however it said fiat must pay roughly the same amount to luxembourgthe case comes as the eu is trying to come up with ways to better ensnare digital giants to pay taxes where they do business though this has been opposed by some european capitalstodays