Regardless of whether he knew it or not, Apple CEO Tim Cook just learned that lesson the hard way. In 2013 the European Commission began investigating Apple's tax deals with Ireland. In 2014 it came out with its formal allegation, namely that the taxation deals worked out between the government of Ireland and Apple's Irish subsidiaries in 1991 and 2007 constituted a violation of Article 108(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (which, as we all know, relies on Aritcle 107(1)'s definition of activities "incompatible with the internal market" of the EU). This scrutiny naturally comes in response to Apple's employment of the trusty old "double Irish with a Dutch sandwich" tax strategy, among other gambits.

Clear as mud? Good. Here's the non-gobbledygook explanation: the state is a group of gangsters running a protection racket. You can play by their rules and jump through their hoops as much as you like, but when they decide you're getting too big for your britches they swoop in to take you down a peg.

In this case, the loser is Apple. The tech giant has just been handed a bill by the European Commission for 13 billion euros in back taxes for breaking laws that didn't exist when they broke them. Or guidelines. Or interpretations of article treaties. Or something.

The absurdity of the situation is encapsulated in Cook's "Message to the Apple Community in Europe" in which he vows to fight the decision: "We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don't owe them any more than we've already paid."

The Irish government, for their part, are equally confused. Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan told Irish broadcaster RTE on Monday that: "As far as I am concerned there is no economic basis for this decision." He added: "They [the European Commision] don't have responsibility for taxes and they are opening a back door through state aid to influence tax policy in European countries when the European treaties say tax policy is a matter for sovereign governments."

Apple is happy with their tax arrangement with Ireland. Ireland is happy with their tax arrangement with Apple. But the EUreaucrats are the bigger gangsters, so they are demanding their pound of flesh.