The European Commission has said it has closed state aid investigations into tax rulings granted by Luxembourg and the Netherlands to Amazon, Fiat and Starbucks.
Back in 2015 and 2017, the commission found that Luxembourg had granted selective tax advantages to both Fiat and Amazon, concluding there had been a breach of EU state aid rules. It also issued the same finding in a case involving the Netherlands and Starbucks.
Also read:Fiat wins LuxLeaks appeal in blow to Commission
In the years since then, however, rulings by the EU’s General Court and Court of Justice have overturned those decisions by the commission, which had originally ordered the firms to repay tens of millions of euros in undue tax benefits.
The European Commission said it has now closed its investigations into the three tax rulings, in a statement issued on Thursday.
“Following judgements handed down by the courts of the European Union, the Commission has concluded that these tax rulings did not confer any advantages on the companies concerned”, the press release said.
Also read:Amazon’s Luxembourg tax deal not illegal state aid, court says
In December 2023, the ECJ had ruled in favour of Amazon in its dispute with Brussels, dismissing the appeal brought by the commission, which had argued the multinational giant should pay €250 million to Luxembourg in unpaid tax.
Earlier, in November 2022, Fiat won a similar case and obtained annulment of a decision requiring it to pay €30 million to Luxembourg.
In 2019, the American coffee chain Starbucks also won a case before the General Court of the EU against the Commission, which had asked it to repay €30 million to the Netherlands.
Luxembourg and the Netherlands are regularly denounced by NGOs for their aggressive tax practices aimed at attracting investment from multinationals.
Also read:Luxembourg remains key enabler of tax avoidance, report says
(This article was originally published by Virgule. Translation and editing by Kabir Agarwal.)
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Publish date : 2024-11-28 09:22:00
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