The EU's highest court dealt a blow to iPhone maker Apple on Tuesday, ordering it to pay 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in back taxes to Ireland in the conclusion to a bitter legal saga that is seen as part of a European Union crackdown against sweetheart deals between EU countries and multinationals.

"The Court of Justice gives final judgment in the matter and confirms the European Commission's 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover," the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement.

The European Commission issued the order in 2016, saying that the iPhone maker benefited from two Irish tax rulings for over two decades that artificially reduced its tax burden to as low as 0.005% in 2014.

Apple had said the record EU tax order defied reality and common sense. Ireland, whose low tax rates helped it to attract Big Tech to set up their European headquarters, had also challenged the EU ruling.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union sided with EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

Earlier, in its 2020 ruling, the European Union's General Court disagreed with the European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, which had accused Apple of striking an illegal tax deal with Irish authorities so that it could pay extremely low rates.

The case drew outrage from Apple when it was opened in 2016, with CEO Tim Cook calling it "total political crap." Then-U.S. President Donald Trump slammed Vestager, who spearheaded the campaign to root out special tax deals and crack down on big U.S. tech companies, as the "tax lady" who "really hates the U.S."

Apple expressed disappointment with the 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 U.S.," the company said.

The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.