I guess what comes as a shock is how much control the EU has.

At the same time, if bureaucrauts in Ireland were a bit smarter they could have just written in a special exemption for companies with certain specific requirements - which end up being Apple and a few big ones.

Apple was also pretty dumb to go to Ireland while Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria offer pretty low taxes out of the box. I guess they did that to access UK talent / lower language barrier even if the fiscal setup was riskier.

Or Ireland could just lower the tax for every company making it a level playing field. I am not a fan of EU economic ideas at all but I am happy they are starting to enforce this one. My country (Poland) has done such deals as well. Wanna start a small business? 19% corporate tax, 23% VAT, 19% cap gain tax. Some German car company thinking about opening a factory here? Let's offer 0 tax rate for many years + additional incentives!

This really is demoralizing how they set rules for small guys but then give big incumbent companies everything they want.

> they could have just written in a special exemption for companies with certain specific requirements - which end up being Apple

That's not how the law works. The courts look at the intent behind the law, the spirit of the law, as well as the text.

It might take longer and more argument but would eventually be struck down as well.

Even if it was legal under the EU at the time? Maybe Ex Post Facto only applies in the US.

It wasn't legal at the time, that's what's just been established by the verdict.

Apple (uniquely) having a near zero tax rate is considered illegal state aid to a company. Private companies are supposed to operate on the same terms within each European country.

It wasn't.