LONDON (AP) — Britain's highest court has settled a 13-year legal battle about taxes on tea cakes.

The winner was Marks & Spencer PLC, which claimed it was owed £3.5 million ($5 million) because sales tax was wrongly applied to its chocolate tea cakes.

Her Majesty's Commissioners of Customs and Excise regarded the treats as cookies — or biscuits, in British parlance.

The government acknowledged in 1994 that Marks & Spencer was right, and the milk-chocolate-swathed domes of marshmallow and biscuit were reclassified as tax-exempt cakes. The retailer submitted a claim for a full refund the following year.

Customs and Excise, however, offered to refund £88,440. Tax officials argued that a full repayment would "unjustly enrich" M&S, because the company had passed on 90 percent of the tax charges to its customers.

Yesterday's ruling by three judges of the House of Lords affirmed last year's decision by the European Court of Justice that Marks & Spencer was entitled to a full refund.

Customs & Excise did not challenge that conclusion before the House of Lords.

"After 13 years of litigation, we are pleased that this matter is now finally concluded," the company said in a statement.