Enlarge (credit: William Murphy)

Apple has attempted to school the European Commission on how it interprets Irish law, by lodging no less than 14 pleas in its challenge against competition officials in Brussels who have ordered the iPhone maker to pay Ireland €13 billion (£11.1 billion) in back taxes.

The company claimed that the commission was wrong in its conclusion that Apple’s tax arrangements with Dublin had amounted to a sweetheart deal for more than a decade, thereby breaking state aid rules.

Apple, in a bold dismissal of the case, is seeking a full or partial annulment and wants the commission—which is the executive arm of the European Union—to pay its legal costs.