1 day Ago By Varun Godinho
With election analysts suggesting that the Kamala Harris star is waning in the crucial weeks leading to the November 5 presidential elections, it seems some of the biggest tech bosses are already hedging their bets on her rival Donald Trump. After Elon Musk most notably threw his weight behind Trump, the Republican candidate has now claimed that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him too recently to discuss ongoing issues the company was having dealing with foreign entities. Trump said that the call from Cook was over concerns about the financial penalties that have been imposed by the European Union on the company.
“Two hours ago, three hours ago, he (Cook) called me,” Trump said, while speaking with podcaster Patrick Bet-David in a programme that was released on Thursday. “He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion (A$22.33 billion).
Then on top of that they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion (A$2.98 billion),” Trump added, quoting his call with Cook. Trump is likely referring to Apple having recently lost a long-running court fight last month with the European Union, resulting in being forced to pay 13 billion euros (A$21.
55 billion) in back taxes to Ireland. The EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg backed a landmark 2016 decision that Ireland broke state-aid law by giving Apple an unfair advantage. An Apple spokesperson said in response to that ruling, “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.
Also, earlier this year, the company was hit with a $2 billion A(A$2.98 billion) EU antitrust fine for preventing rival music streaming services such as Spotify from informing iPhone users that they could find cheaper ways to subscribe outside of Apple’s app store. Cook’s call to Trump appeared to get Trump onside if Apple were to begin pushing back against an increasingly aggressive EU who even passed the Digital Markets Act too earlier this year which is causing significant friction with Big Tech companies such as Meta, Alphabet and Amazon.
“Tim, I got to get elected first. But I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies. That won’t be happening,” said Trump during the podcast, quoting himself as having told Cook during the call.
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