Ireland was ordered to collect the back tax in August 2016, something Apple chief executive Tim Cook described as ‘an effort to rewrite Apple's history in Europe, ignore Ireland's tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process’.

The August 2016 ruling is a retrospective decision dating back to tax arrangements made since 2003.

At the time, Margrethe Vestager, the commissioner in charge of competition policy, said: ‘The Commission's investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years. In fact, this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1% on its European profits in 2003 down to 0.005% in 2014.’

However, Ireland tried to fight the decision, fearing it may force out several multinational corporations who have set up in the country, in part attracted by its tax regime.

Countries have four months from rulings to recover back taxes, Vegstager said today, 4 October 2017, and as such, Ireland has been referred to the ECJ.

The Commission said the deadline for Ireland to implement its decision had been 3 January 2017 and that, until the tax was recovered, Apple continued to benefit from an illegal advantage.

'More than one year after the Commission adopted this decision, Ireland has still not recovered the money, also not in part,’ Vegstager said. 'We of course understand that recovery in certain cases may be more complex than in others, and we are always ready to assist. But member states need to make sufficient progress to restore competition.’

Ireland’s finance ministry said in a bullish statement that it ‘has never accepted the Commission’s analysis in the Apple State Aid Decision’.

It added: ‘We have always been clear that the government is fully committed to ensuring that recovery of the alleged Apple state aid takes place without delay and has committed significant resources to ensuring this is achieved.  Ireland fully respects the rule of law in the European Union.

‘That is why it is extremely disappointing that the Commission has taken action at this time against Ireland. Irish officials and experts have been engaged in intensive work to ensure that the State complies with all its recovery obligations as soon as possible, and have been in constant contact with the European Commission and Apple on all aspects of this process for over a year.

‘It is extremely regrettable that the Commission has taken this action, especially in relation to a case with such a large scale recovery amount. Ireland has made significant progress on this complex issue and is close to the establishment of an escrow fund, in compliance with all relevant Irish constitutional and European Union law.

‘The work on the establishment of the escrow fund to deal with the unprecedented recovery amount will continue, notwithstanding the fact that Commission has taken this wholly unnecessary step.’

Apple has been contacted for comment.

Report by Calum Fuller