Amazon wins top European Union court clash over $272 million tax bill

BLOOMBERG

Amazon.com won its legal battle with European Union (EU) competition watchdogs over a €250 million ($272 million) tax bill as the bloc’s top court cast more doubt on an EU crackdown on nations accused of giving some firms special treatment. The EU’s Court of Justice said the European Commission failed to establish that a tax arrangement between Amazon and Luxembourg was “state aid that was incompatible with the internal market.”
The ruling is another painful defeat for EU Competition Chief Margrethe Vestager, who’s led a decade-long campaign against tax deals doled out to big companies by member states.
She slapped Apple Inc with a record €13 billion order in a landmark case that now hinges on a final ruling from the EU’s top court. A court adviser last month said judges should topple the iPhone maker’s earlier court success. “The court is hugely limiting what we can do in order to make sure that companies pay their fair share of taxes,” Vestager said after the ruling. “We still have quite some way to go despite what we have done in the last 10 years, in order to secure tax justice.” Amazon said the ruling “confirms” that it “followed all applicable laws and received no special treatment.” Overall, the commission has had a mixed success in the bloc’s courts, as companies challenged their tax orders. But judges have at least backed the regulator’s novel policy of using state-aid law to attack unfair tax aid.