Welcome to the tech meme ride home for Wednesday, July 15th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today.

Apple wins its big tax fight with the EU.

Sony is doubling PlayStation 5 production because COVID.

Zoom has its own hardware device, an early preview of the new Peacock streaming service,

and forget 5G, is it too early to start talking about 6G? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.

Well, someone in Silicon Valley is capable of staring down the EU and actually winning.

Apple has won its EU court fight over a record 14.9 billion dollar Irish tax bill as the EU General

Court has ruled that Ireland's tax arrangements with the company weren't legal

quoting Bloomberg. While the EU general court's ruling can still be

appealed, judges delivered a stinging attack on the European Commission for

failing to show quote to the requisite legal standard that Ireland's tax deal broke state aid law by giving

Apple an unfair advantage.

Quote, the Commission's intent seemed to be a political one to punish Apple for its overall tax planning rather than to reach a

result that accorded with the legal or economic position Dan Needle a tax lawyer

with Clifford Chance said in a statement the court has quite rightly followed the law and not any wider political objectives, end quote. The ruling represents a crushing blow to European Union competition commissioner Margie Vestager's crackdown on preferential fiscal deals for companies.

The EU will consider its next steps after studying the Luxembourg-based court's judgment, Vestager,

said in a statement, quote,

if member states give certain multinational companies tax advantages

not available to their rivals, this harms fair competition,

she said, adding that the EU, quote,

will continue to look at aggressive tax planning measures

under EU state aid rules end quote. Apple said the case quote was not about how much

...