Inviting followers on Twitter to "show us what makes you proud to be British" as part of a diamond jubilee promotion must have seemed like a good idea at the time at Starbucks. 
 
 But after tweeting the invitation to nearly 2,000 Irish followers of its Twitter account on Tuesday, the coffee giant has been on the receiving end of a backlash over its seemingly shaky grasp of political geography. 
 
 "Right now someone in Starbucks Ireland is wishing there was a Twitter version of the memory wipe thing from Men In Black," was just one of the responses tweeted soon after. 
 
 One follower of the Starbucks Ireland account (@Starbucks.IE), Fergus McNally, commented: "the ie stands for Ireland, awaiting the apology before I visit your stores again!!" 
 
 An apology did come, hours after the gaffe, with the Starbucks Ireland account telling followers: "We erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page meaning to post to the UK only. Customers in Ireland: We're sorry." 
 
 The company later followed up by issuing a statement saying: "First and foremost we apologise to our Irish customers for the mistake made on Twitter this afternoon. 
 
 "The tweet, which was only meant to be sent to our British Twitter followers as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations, was erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page. 
 
 "We apologise to all our customers and followers on Twitter in Ireland and hope that they will forgive our mistake." 
 
 The error comes months after another global brand, Nike, found itself on the back foot after falling foul of sensitivities over Irish history. 
 
 The sportswear giant said no offence was intended after issuing a St Patrick's Day-themed shoe which raised memories of a British paramilitary unit which gained notoriety during the Irish war of independence. 
 
 Nike had released the shoe, which it dubbed the "Black and Tan", in a nod to Guinness. The beer-themed trainer had a black-leather upper with tan elements, creamy swoosh and featured an image of a pint. ||||| BRUSSELS/DUBLIN (Reuters) - The European Commission ordered Apple Inc to pay Ireland unpaid taxes of up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) on Tuesday as it ruled the firm had received illegal state aid. 
 
 Apple and Dublin said the U.S. company’s tax treatment was in line with Irish and European Union law and they would appeal the ruling, which is part of a drive against what the EU says are sweetheart tax deals that usually smaller states in the bloc offer multinational companies to lure jobs and investment. 
 
 The U.S. feels its firms are being targeted by the EU and a U.S. Treasury spokesperson warned the move threatens to undermine U.S. investment in Europe and “the important spirit of economic partnership between the U.S. and the EU.” 
 
 Starbucks Corp has been ordered to pay up to 30 million euros ($33 million) to the Dutch state, while Amazon.com Inc and McDonald’s Corp are also under investigation by the Commission, the EU’s executive arm. 
 
 Apple’s stock fell less than 1 percent. 
 
 EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager questioned how anyone might think an arrangement that allowed Apple to pay a tax rate of 0.005 percent, as Apple’s main Irish unit did in 2014, was fair. 
 
 “Tax rulings granted by Ireland have artificially reduced Apple’s tax burden for over two decades, in breach of the EU state aid rules. Apple now has to repay the benefits,” Vestager told a news conference. 
 
 Analysts said the size of the claim underlined the Commission’s aggressive stance, but since each case involves different circumstances and tax rules, lawyers said it was hard to see if further big claims were any more or less likely. 
 
 Apple, which had more than $200 billion in cash and readily marketable securities at the end of June, is likely to see the case drag out for years in EU and possibly Irish courts. 
 
 Apple warned investors in a July regulatory filing that the Commission’s investigation could lead to “material” liability for further tax payments, but that it could not estimate the impact. On Tuesday the company said it expects to place “some amount of cash” in an escrow account. 
 
 Tax experts say the European Commission faces a tough battle to convince courts to back up its stand. While the EU has found that certain tax regulations are anti-competitive, it has never before ruled whether countries have applied tax regulations fairly in the way it has with Apple, Starbucks and others. 
 
 As a result, some lawyers and accountants said they doubted Apple would end up paying back any tax. 
 
 “I am not persuaded by the reasoning the EU has applied,” said Tim Wach, global managing director at international tax advisers Taxand. 
 
 “ARTIFICIAL” ARRANGEMENT The EU’s ruling challenges the way that Ireland agreed to tax the profits of Irish-registered Apple subsidiaries, through which most of its non-U.S. profits flowed. 
 
 Apple Inc licenses the rights to technology designed in the United States to Irish subsidiaries. These then hire contract manufacturers to make devices which they sell to Apple retail subsidiaries around Europe and Asia. 
 
 Since the manufacturing cost is a small portion of device sales prices and retail subsidiaries are allocated a small operating margin, Apple Ireland is very profitable. In 2011, it earned $22 billion after paying $2 billion to its U.S. parent in relation to the rights to Apple intellectual property. 
 
 However, the Irish tax authority agreed only 50 million euros of this was taxable in Ireland, the European Commission said. Under the terms of Apple’s tax deal, first agreed in 1991 and renewed in 2007, Apple could allocate most of the profits earned by its Irish operating units to a “head office” that did not have any employees or own any premises. 
 
 “This ‘head office’ had no operating capacity to handle and manage the distribution business, or any other substantive business for that matter,” the Commission said. 
 
 The Commission said this agreement had no basis in tax law and was not available to others, and so represented state aid. 
 
 Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he profoundly disagreed with the decision and in order to preserve Ireland’s attractiveness for investment he would appeal. 
 
 “There is no economic basis for this decision. It’s bizarre and it’s an exercise in politics by the Competition Commission,” Noonan said. 
 
 “They 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,” he added. 
 
 An Apple logo is seen in the window of an authorised apple reseller store in Galway, Ireland August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne 
 
 Ireland’s low corporate tax rate has been a cornerstone of the country’s economic policy for decades, drawing investors from multinational companies whose staff account for almost one in 10 of the country’s workers. 
 
 For many technology firms like Google and Facebook, a key attraction is that Ireland allows companies to adopt tax structures which see them pay much less than the 12.5 percent headline rate. The companies say they follow all tax rules. 
 
 Apple said it was confident of winning an appeal. 
 
 “The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process,” CEO Tim Cook said in a letter to customers posted on Apple’s website. 
 
 “A company’s profits should be taxed in the country where the value is created,” he added. 
 
 U.S. OPPOSITION The U.S. Treasury Department published a white paper last week in which it said it was looking at possible responses to what it sees as unfair targeting of its firms, which could include extra taxes on the U.S. arms of European companies. 
 
 The paper noted that the EU executive’s tax rulings could cost the U.S. exchequer money. 
 
 Under U.S. tax law, Apple’s Irish profits are taxable if brought back to the United States – something the company would have to do if it wanted to use the money to pay dividends. 
 
 But any tax paid in Europe is reduced from the tax due in the United States. The Treasury has said the Commission’s approach was at odds with EU tax law and international treaties. 
 
 The Commission, which has also ruled European companies including carmaker Fiat and Swedish engineer Atlas Copco AB must pay tax claims worth over $350 million, said its application of competition law to tax rulings followed EU law and treated all companies equally. 
 
 Nonetheless, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg have already appealed EU rulings against their tax deals with multinationals. 
 
 Apple employs 5,500 people in areas such as logistics and distribution in the Irish city of Cork, which has about a quarter of Apple’s Europe-based staff. 
 
 Slideshow (7 Images) 
 
 The Commission has previously said Apple’s tax treatment had been “motivated by employment considerations.” 
 
 Apple has said it paid Ireland’s 12.5 percent rate on all the income that it generates in the country. 
 
 Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri decried the effective tax rate cited by Vestager as “a completely made-up number. ||||| Image caption The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent much of Saturday in the Danum Valley rainforest in Borneo 
 
 The Republic of Ireland edition of the Irish Daily Star has published photos of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless while on holiday in France. 
 
 Editor Mike O'Kane said he treated Catherine as he would any celebrity. 
 
 But the paper's joint owners - Northern and Shell and Independent News and Media - condemned the decision and said they had no prior knowledge of it. 
 
 St James's Palace has said it is suing the publishers of French magazine Closer which first printed the images. 
 
 A palace spokeswoman said of the Irish publication that there could be "no motivation for this action other than greed". 
 
 The pictures did not feature in the Northern Ireland edition of the Irish Daily Star. 
 
 'Service to our readers' 
 
 The Dublin-based tabloid is a joint venture between Northern & Shell - publisher of the UK Daily Star - and Ireland's Independent News and Media. 
 
 The decision by the Irish Daily Star to print the topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge while on holiday will not surprise many in Ireland. The Irish media also took the decision to be the first outlet to publish the naked pictures of Prince Harry. The Evening Herald published the pictures under the headline "The Naked Prince" with the sub-heading reading "Britain's Prince Harry strips off in Las Vegas." However, Ireland's media does operate under a code of practice established by The Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman. The structures are designed to ensure that the freedom of the Press is never abused, and that the public interest is always served. Buckingham Palace did not take legal action over the Harry pictures but it's not yet clear what they will do this time. 
 
 Following publication of the photos, Northern and Shell said it had no editorial control over the Irish-based newspaper and was consulting lawyers "as a matter of urgency", over what it believed to be "a serious breach of their contract". 
 
 Chairman Richard Desmond said: "I am very angry at the decision to publish these photographs and am taking immediate steps to close down the joint venture. 
 
 "The decision to publish these pictures has no justification whatever and Northern & Shell condemns it in the strongest possible terms." 
 
 Independent News and Media added that it had no prior knowledge of the matter prior to publication. 
 
 Republication of pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge by the Irish Daily Star was "regrettable and in poor taste," it said. 
 
 The company also owns the Evening Herald, which printed naked pictures of the duchess' brother-in-law, Prince Harry, following a trip to Las Vegas. 
 
 Mr O'Kane said he was "taken aback" by reaction to the story in the UK, claiming the printing of the pictures was only causing upset in Britain and not the rest of Europe. 
 
 "The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga. 
 
 "She's not the future queen of Ireland so really the only place this is causing fury seems to be in the UK." 
 
 Image caption Press Council of Ireland rules say privacy 'should not prevent publication of matters of public record' 
 
 Speaking to the BBC News Channel, the editor added that he printed the photos of the duchess as a "service to our readers". 
 
 "She's married into the royal family, she's one of the most photographed people in the world, and she decides to partially disrobe on a balcony where it can be seen from a public road and she's stunned now, or the Palace are annoyed that people are interested in this. 
 
 "Of course people are going to be interested in this," he said. 
 
 He revealed the newspaper was not offered the pictures directly, and had re-printed images of the cover and inside pages of Closer after they were put out by news agencies. 
 
 Italian magazine 
 
 The Press Council of Ireland was unavailable for comment on the decision to publish the photographs of the duchess, but its 10-point code of practice includes a section on privacy. 
 
 The guidelines state "privacy is a human right, protected as a personal right in the Irish Constitution". 
 
 The principle on privacy goes on to say that the right to privacy "should not prevent publication of matters of public record or in the public interest". 
 
 Media caption Irish Daily Star editor Mike O'Kane: "Everybody in Ireland wants to know what all the kerfuffle is about" 
 
 It adds: "Taking photographs of individuals in private places without their consent is not acceptable, unless justified by the public interest." 
 
 News of the publication of the photographs came after Italian gossip magazine Chi said it planned to print the pictures in a special 26-page issue next week. 
 
 A spokeswoman for the royals would not comment on potential legal action concerning the proposed publication of the photos in Italy "save to say that all proportionate responses will be kept under review". 
 
 She added: "Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who were enjoying time alone together in the privacy of a relative's home." 
 
 Closer and Chi are both part of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mondadori media group. 
 
 No UK titles have published the photos and British newspapers have been quick to condemn foreign titles that have published or plan to publish them. 
 
 The royal couple were staying at the French chateau of the Queen's nephew, Lord Linley, in Provence when the photos were taken. 
 
 Wllliam and Kate face challenges in both the short and longer term. In the coming days, they will have to decide what, if any, action to take against the Irish Daily Star. Having taken a stand and started legal action in Paris, do they want to do the same in Dublin and possibly Rome? Their more pressing concern is to ensure this does not overshadow the remainder of their tour. They are heading to two tiny South Pacific nations - the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. This has been a very painful period for the duke and the duchess. Kate has been reminded of something William has known for a long time - a life of intense scrutiny is the price you pay as a senior royal. In pictures: Royal Borneo visit 
 
 The duke and duchess are currently on a nine-day tour of south-east Asia and the South Pacific to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. 
 
 On Saturday, the couple arrived by helicopter in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo, to explore wildlife at the Danum Valley field centre. 
 
 Wearing harnesses and helmets, William and Catherine were hoisted more than 40 metres into the branches of a parashorea tomentella tree. 
 
 During a short walk to the centre's wildlife research laboratory, a leech attached itself to the duchess's leg - which she "calmly" picked off, according to academic Dr Glen Reynolds who accompanied them on the trip. 
 
 The couple then flew to the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, where they were taken on a tour of the treetop canopy on a walkway suspended 26 metres above ground. 
 
 The next leg of their Diamond Jubilee tour will see the pair fly from Malaysia to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, where they will be welcomed by warriors in traditional dress and presented with garlands of flowers.
– Starbucks' Irish Twitter account has just 2,000 followers, but an awkward tweet it directed to them has managed to piss off an entire nation: "Show us what makes you proud to be British," the company tweeted during the Diamond Jubilee. The coffee giant says it intended the message to reach only its UK Twitter followers, the Guardian reports. One Irish customer warned @StarbucksIE: "The ie stands for Ireland, awaiting the apology before I visit your stores again!!" Following the mistake, Starbucks' Ireland account noted that "we erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page meaning to post to the UK only. Customers in Ireland: We're sorry."