alt Hacker News> Like the EU forcing Apple to pay $14B in back taxes after voiding a legal and consensual tax agreement between Apple and Ireland?
They're back taxes. The EU did right by every single law-abiding business when they forced Apple to remediate their unnatural and unfair arrangement. Not a single naturally competitive business suffered as a result of either action. The EU does not suffer economically by weeding out businesses that exploit it to avoid paying taxes, only Apple does.
A company and a country made a legal, consensual agreement (that the Irish public was also in favor of) and the EU stepped in and "re-interpreted" it to rent-seek.
This is transparent and obvious to everyone outside of the EU. Rent-seeking behavior is the reason companies are less interested in going to the EU.
> The EU does not suffer economically [...]
The EU suffers economically when it falls behind technologically.