Vestager lashes out at Apple again – POLITICO

But its biggest row has been over Apple’s tax arrangements with Ireland, where eight years ago it demanded the company pay about 13 billion euros to the country under selective tax arrangements.

Apple CEO Tim Cook called her order “total political nonsense.” Vestager even had the dubious honor of catching the attention of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who called her “a tax man.”

The Apple tax case could have been a bitter one for Vestager, as the iPhone maker’s successful court challenge invalidated her tax order. The final ruling of the EU Supreme Court has still not been issued.

The legal outcome does not change Vestager’s view of the company’s operations.

“We’ve had a tax case before, but no matter how it ends, it shows that Apple contributes very, very little to taxes in the jurisdictions where it makes profits,” she told reporters in Amsterdam.

artificial intelligence? No thanks

One of the biggest threats to U.S. Big Tech companies is that innovations are being held back from European customers due to a regulatory climate they see as increasingly hostile.