According to the Court of Justice, the General Court “erred” when it ruled that the Commission had “not proved sufficiently” that the intellectual property licences held by Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe and related profits, generated by sales of Apple products outside the United States, “should have been allocated, for tax purposes, to the Irish branches”.

“In particular, the General Court erred when it ruled that the Commission’s primary line of reasoning was based on erroneous assessments of normal taxation under the Irish tax law applicable in the case,” the court said.

“By its judgment, on appeal by the Commission, the Court of Justice sets aside the judgment of the General Court and gives final judgment in the matter,” the Court of Justice said.

In 2016, the European Commission found that Apple received illegal state aid from Ireland over a more than ten-year period between 2003 and 2014 with it declaring the iPhone-maker owed Ireland money in back taxes. The verdict followed a three-year investigation but successive appeals by Apple and Ireland have been making their way through the courts ever since.

It was appealed to the EU’s General Court which ruled that the European Commission “did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard” and that Apple had received tax advantages from Ireland, ruling in favour of the tech giant.

The decision was subsequently appealed to the European Court of Justice by the Commission.

In November last year, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice came out in favour of the EU Commission’s tax order to Apple, adding that judges should back the ruling issued by EU competition regulators to the tech giant in 2016.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Apple said the case has “never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to”.

“We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate and there has never been a special deal. The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US,” the spokesperson said. 

“We are disappointed with today’s decision as previously the General Court reviewed the facts and categorically annulled this case.”

The money for the tax bill has been held in an escrow account, the value of which stands at €13.77bn as of the end of 2023.

This latest ruling is not the end of litigation which could still last a few more years.