Apple is challenging India's new antitrust penalty law under which the U.S. company could potentially face a fine of up to $38 billion, a court filing at the Delhi High Court, seen by Reuters, shows.
www.reuters.com
果子垄断，被印度罚380亿。
好，罚死果子，顶老印。
和20天前这41亿罚款是不是一回事？印度拿出一个60的多年前的条款，收割苹果的利润。
View: https://youtu.be/XIoSBYWXc_I?si=b8jtCcURwr_Dks97
The Truth Behind Apple's $4.1 Billion Fine in India!
Nov 6, 2025
The Truth Behind Apple's $4.1 Billion Fine in India!
What is the Hidden Trick Behind the Bizarre Penalty?
The world's most "compliance-savvy" company, Apple, has stumbled badly in India—a massive $4.1 billion fine for alleged tax evasion, stunning the entire tech world. Apple is known for meticulous compliance, having even pre-filed letters with the Indian tax authorities on taxes where the obligation was "uncertain," treating its compliance manual as part of its corporate DNA. How, then, did it become a "major tax evader"? This situation is so bizarre that international tax law experts are calling it a "mind-boggling redefinition" that completely upends the basic understanding of "paying taxes according to the law."
At its core, the fine is essentially a "legal jigsaw puzzle" played by the Indian tax authorities. You can think of it like this: ten years ago, you borrowed a friend's chair, and at the time, no fee was discussed. Now, the friend pulls out a paper from their grandfather's era, claiming that borrowing the chair incurs a "space occupation fee," calculated based on all the money you've ever earned while using that chair. Apple's manufacturing equipment is that "chair." India is leveraging a 60-year-old law and a new interpretation to levy this astronomical fine.What's even more shocking is that the $4.1 billion fine is not for "unpaid taxes," but for Apple's "global profits" derived from phones manufactured in India. According to India's logic, as long as Apple controls the production equipment, even if the phones are sold in the US or Europe, India deserves a share of the profit. This kind of "reaching into the global wallet" operation is unprecedented, even in jurisdictions with strict tax enforcement like the US and the EU.Next, we will peel back the three layers of this scheme: How did India use "archaic laws" to set a trap for Apple? How outrageous is India's "creative enforcement" compared to genuine tax regulation in the West? What kind of survival crisis does this fine signal for foreign enterprises?
1. 60-Year-Old Law + New Interpretation: How Vicious is India's "Legal Combo"?A key feature of Apple's contract manufacturers in India is that the high-precision equipment for iPhone production is owned entirely by Apple. The contract manufacturer only provides labor and factory space. This is a global standard—since the equipment is specialized only for Apple products, buying it would be a huge risk for the contract manufacturer. Apple owning it ensures security and low costs. This is the exact practice in China and Vietnam, and it has never been an issue—until India, where it became the "smoking gun" for "tax evasion."
