Tax evasion is anti-competitive. If you illegally pay less taxes than your competition, then you have more resources available than your competitors.

Laws are country dependent. Ireland seemed okay with it, and the US was more than okay with it, I'm sure.

Except they were avoiding tax in the rest of the EU, so the EU can fine Apple for skirting taxes on products that were actually sold in those other areas.

tl;dr - EU makes rules that companies need to follow no matter which EU country they operate in.

I don't agree that "retroactively made illegal" is the same thing as "illegal", nor should it be called "skirting taxes" when everyone who was involved was okay with it until today where the EU unilaterally decides to alter the deal and punish apple.

The rest of the EU countries who were being defrauded of their tax revenue sure cared.

You act like it's a victimless crime and it most definitely is not.

and that's fine - make sure that other companies who were taking advantage of the same deal are punished accordingly.

The article connects this specific case with other actions the EU is currently taking against Apple and Google. I assumed the "guess it's time for the EU to milk that cash cow" comment alluded to this.