An EU high court has gone against the European Commission, and determined apple does not need to pay 13B Euros in taxation while operating in Ireland. There are a few different angles to look at this from.
It could be seen as a win for Ireland. Since relations between the UK and EU have souring over the past few years, Ireland has become an increasingly popular base of operations for American companies to do business in the EU. Britain has long since been a link between American companies and Europe. Obvious factors being the common language, and British understanding of European business practices and markets. However, with a corporate tax rate of just 12%, and still being a full member of the European Union, The Republic of Ireland has seen foreign direct investment get a nice uptick from across the pond. The court’s decision can also set precedent for Ireland to continue to attract investment (that also trickles into the rest of the EU by the way), with out being hindered by Brussels’ over regulation of the economies of independent countries (am I showing some bias here?)
It could be seen as a loss for the larger countries of the EU like France and the Netherlands, who have corporate tax rates higher than Ireland’s. While there are a lot of great benefits of being a country that is part of the EU, such as collective investment for infrastructure, more bargaining power on the global scale for smaller countries, etc. The European commission at time does much to stifle the economies of its smaller nations with limited production quotas on commodities that these countries used to be able to trade freely.
In the end. Apple’s relationship with the European Commission may have soured, but it could mean European tech will up it’s game to remain competitive, and smaller EU countries might be able to have more control of their economic future.