VAT is irrelevant, EXCEPT in B2C retail. But only from a private customer's point of view (which is of course relevant in pricing, especially at low profit margins).

You're not selling the product for $100, you're selling it at $83.33 plus VAT. That means your customer will have to part with $100, though. If your customer is not willing to pay >= $108 for the product (i.e. $90 plus VAT), of course you're operating at a loss.

You could argue this is just semantics but B2C retail is the only major example where VAT matters. And considering we're talking about Apple I'm not convinced Apple's profit margins have Tim Cooke worried about EU VAT.