Margrethe Vestager. Photo credit: Radikale Venstre (Danish Social Liberal Party)

Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, said on Thursday that EU court rulings this week, which included the rejection of an EU order for Apple to pay 13 billion euros in Irish back taxes, were a “loss”. “The first thing you do when you get a court judgement is to read it very, very carefully. And we are still in the process of doing that. Of course, it’s a loss, because it was an annulment by the court,” Vestager stated during an online event.

Apple recently won a court ruling that overturned a previous ruling which determined that Apple had been given illegal tax breaks by the Irish capital of Dublin and was required to cough up a whopping 13 billion euros in back taxes (i.e. taxes the company was supposed to pay had the said illegal tax breaks not been provided). Apple fought the previous ruling, which was issued in 2016, and has apparently emerged victorious four years later. The nation of Ireland, which has one of the lowest corporate tax rates among EU countries, is Apple’s base for its international operations across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Thanks to lower corporate tax rates, many other companies also employ Ireland as their base for international operations, companies including the likes of Microsoft, Facebook, and Google.

The Irish government itself, which apparently benefits from companies basing sizeable operations within its vicinity, argued that Apple should not have to repay the deemed back taxes, considering that its loss was worth making the country remain an attractive home for large companies. In a ruling issued on Wednesday, the European General Court (EGC) sided with the Irish government’s argument, stating that there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Apple had received illegal tax breaks.