Ireland gets an Apple windfall, but tackling tax avoidance just got harder | Simon Bowers

The intervention of Margrethe Vestager, Europe's competition commissioner, has ruffled feathers

Apple boss Tim Cook is furious. How dare Brussels' meddling competition regulators retrospectively unpick a tax deal that the iPhone-maker had secured from Ireland a quarter of a century ago. What business is it of theirs? Tax, after all, is a sovereign issue for each individual member state within the European Union. The European commission's ruling would have a "profound and harmful effect" on investment and job creation in Europe, he said.

His political allies at home have waded in too. US Treasury secretary Jack Lew warned last week that the move could have a "chilling effect on US-EU cross-border investment". The US would have to "consider potential responses".