Details of the appeal brought by Amazon on 22 May 2018 against the European Commission’s conclusion that the company received illegal state aid under a tax ruling in Luxembourg have been published on the Court of Justice’s Curia website.
The Commission released its decision in October 2017 that Amazon had received illegal tax benefits worth around €250m from Luxembourg over an eight-year period between 2003 and 2011. According to the Commission this ruling ‘enabled Amazon to avoid taxation on almost three quarters of the profits it made from all Amazon sales in the EU’.
Amazon’s EU operating company paid royalties respect of certain intellectual property to a holding company which in turn passed part of these payments to Amazon in the US. This royalty was equivalent to around 90% of the operating company’s profits.
Amazon’s action is based on nine pleas in law including that the Commission’s...
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