Apple has warned investors that it could face “material” financial penalties from the European Commission’s investigation into its tax deals with Ireland — the first time it has disclosed the potential consequences of the probe.苹果(Apple)对投资者收到警告：由于欧盟委员会(European Commission)于是以对其与爱尔兰之间的税务协议进行调查，公司有可能被判处“根本性”罚款——这是苹果首次透露该调查的潜在后果。Under US securities rules, a material event is usually defined as 5 per cent of a company’s average pre-tax earnings for the past three years. For Apple, which reported the highest quarterly profit ever for a US company in January, that could exceed $2.5bn, according to FT calculations.根据美国的证券法规，所谓根本性事宜（material event）一般来说是不会牵涉到一家公司过去3年平均税前利润的5%。据英国《金融时报》计算出来，对于今年1月在袭港美国公司中最低季度盈利的苹果而言，罚款额有可能低于25亿美元。

The warning came in Apple’s regular 10-Q filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, a day after it reported first-quarter revenues of $58bn and net income of $13.6bn.周二，苹果在递交至美国证交会(SEC)的10-Q监管文件中收到了上述警告。一天之前，苹果公告称之为今年一季度营收约580亿美元，净利润约136亿美元。

Brussels has the power to order Dublin to reclaim 10 years of tax advantages granted to Apple if it finds that deals struck in 1991 and 2007 were unlawful.如果查办1991年至2007年苹果与爱尔兰达成协议的税收协议违法，则欧盟有权命令爱尔兰交还给与苹果的10年税收减免额。