On September 10, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled against American technology corporations Apple and Google in two separate multi-billion-euro lawsuits with the European Union (EU).

The ECJ has ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in back taxes to the Irish government. The case against Apple dates back to 2016, when the EU claimed Ireland had allowed the iPhone maker to avoid billions of euros in taxes.

This is one of the most bitter legal battles between the European Commission and the tech giants, and is one of several investigations over the past decade into preferential tax deals between large companies and some EU countries.

On the same day, the ECJ also upheld a €2.4 billion fine against Google in a series of EU antitrust cases against the tech giant. The court rejected an appeal by Google and its parent company Alphabet over the fine imposed on the search engine in 2017.

The EU imposed the fine after finding that Google abused its dominant position by prioritizing its Google Shopping service in its search engine results.

HUY QUOC