BRUSSELS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) on Tuesday

lost its fight against an order by EU competition regulators to

pay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland as part of an EU

crackdown against sweetheart deals between EU countries and

multinationals.

The European Commission issued the order in 2016, saying

that the iPhone maker benefited from two Irish tax rulings for

over two decades that artificially reduced its tax burden to as

low as 0.005% in 2014.