Amazon wins court fight against $303 million EU tax order
By Reuters
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Amazon on Wednesday won its fight against an EU order to pay about $303 million in back taxes to Luxembourg as Europe s second highest court dealt a blow to the bloc s crackdown against unfair tax deals for multinationals.
In a separate case, French utility Engie however lost its appeal against an EU order to pay back taxes of $145.7 million to Luxembourg.
The Luxembourg-based General Court said Amazon had not enjoyed a selective advantage in its tax deal with Luxembourg. The Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group, the judge said.
A European Union court on Wednesday ruled in favour of litigants seeking to ban the import of goods from Israeli settlements on occupied land, rescinding a decision by the bloc's executive in 2019 not to register a citizens' petition they had submitted.
The Amazon ruling is a setback for European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who has aggressively used the bloc's state aid rules to tackle sweetheart tax deals between multinationals and EU countries
Amazon Wins EU Court Appeal over €250m Luxembourg Tax Bill chronicle.lu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chronicle.lu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Amazon won on Wednesday (12 May) its fight against an EU order to pay about €250 million euros in back taxes to Luxembourg, as Europe’s second-highest court dealt a blow to the bloc’s efforts to make multinational corporations pay more taxes.
The Luxembourg-based General Court said the online retail giant had not enjoyed a selective advantage in its tax deal with the Grand Duchy.
“The Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group,” the judges said.
Amazon welcomed the ruling in a statement, saying it was in line with its “long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment”.