That's a distinction without a difference. Presumably, if Ireland hadn't offered this deal, Apple would have done their business somewhere else. Sure, they may have paid some other country more taxes, but potentially less taxes than what they now owe Ireland.
Apple isn't blameless here, but it definitely kinda feels like they got a little bit defrauded by the Irish government who now essentially is getting rewarded with billions of dollars for their illegal conduct.
Apple is a lot worse than merely 'isn't blameless'. They knew perfectly well what they were getting into and I'm confident that the current judgment would have been a scenario that their lawyers would have explored.
I'm sure that if Apple thinks that they have been hard done by that they could sue the Irish government for damages in the Irish courts.
I mean, don't you see how that's bad though? Ireland gets to just lie to people, promise them things, profit from their lies and then their courts get to decide if they were wrong?
Also, everyone's stating with a lot of confidence that Apple absolutely knew this was illegal under EU law. Is that in evidence in the case? Have there been other prosecutions of other EU states for doing this?
Apple isn't blameless here, but it definitely kinda feels like they got a little bit defrauded by the Irish government who now essentially is getting rewarded with billions of dollars for their illegal conduct.