European justice cancels the reimbursement of 250 million euros in tax rebates granted to Amazon in Luxembourg

European justice validated the legality, Wednesday, May 12, of the tax rebates obtained by Amazon in Luxembourg, disavowing the European Commission, which saw irregular state aid of 250 million euros which it had demanded repayment.

The opening of a Commission investigation came after the “LuxLeaks” revelations in 2014, a large-scale journalistic work that uncovered a large-scale tax evasion system for the benefit of multinationals domiciled in Luxembourg.

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At the end of its investigations, Brussels estimated that Amazon had benefited from illegal advantages, thanks to an agreement of 2003 (renewed in 2011) allowing it to escape tax on nearly three quarters of its profits in this country. which houses its European headquarters. The European executive estimated the undue benefits at 250 million euros and ordered their reimbursement in October 2017.

“It should be canceled as a whole”

Luxembourg and Amazon had filed a lawsuit on which the court of the European Union (EU), chamber of first instance, concluded, Wednesday, that“None of the findings set out in the contested decision is sufficient to demonstrate the existence of an advantage (…) so that it should be annulled as a whole ‘, according to a press release.

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The EU executive, however, has the option of appealing to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), as it did after its resounding defeat against Apple last year. The European Commission had indeed lost in July 2020 before the same court, which had canceled the reimbursement to Ireland of 13 billion euros in tax benefits.

At the same time, the European executive ordered Luxembourg in June 2018 to recover 120 million euros from Engie, questioning dubious financial arrangements that allowed the French energy company to avoid tax on 99%. profits generated by two of its subsidiaries located in the Grand Duchy. In this case, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against Luxembourg and the energy company, whose dubious financial arrangements have indeed, according to the judges, constituted an undue advantage.

The World with AFP