Apple is a particularly difficult case, because they control every link in the chain of supply from manufacturing to retail and pay less than 1% effective corporate tax from their profits. From every step of the supply chain.<p>It is very difficult, if not impossible, to compete with Apple without having a similar end-to-end control of manufacturing to retail. If a company has to purchase their products from a manufacturer or sell their product to a 3rd party for retail, they are losing to Apple because that flow of money can&#x27;t be hidden from the tax man.<p>Europe is currently facing major financial issues and a significant portion of this is that money gets funneled away to the US (or offshore accounts of US corps) without the fair share of taxes of their profits left here.