EU court backs Amazon in tax ruling

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said Brussels would "study carefully" Wednesday's EU General Court annulment in favor of Amazon.

The case may still end up before the bloc's highest chamber, the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

In 2017, the EU Commission ordered the US retailer to pay €250 million ($300 million) in back taxes to Luxembourg, despite Luxembourg siding with Amazon.

At that time, Vestager had argued that Amazon had profited from special low tax conditions since 2003 in Luxembourg, home to the US giant's European headquarters.

General Court judges on Wednesday, however, ruled the commission had failed to 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 supposed advantage calculated by Brussels was "based on an analysis which is incorrect in several aspects," said the Luxembourg-based judges, referring to Amazon European Holding Technologies and Amazon EU.

Welcoming Wednesday's ruling, the Amazon group said it was "in line with our long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment."

Luxembourg's government too said Wednesday's ruling did not call into question its "commitment to transparency in tax matters."

Vestager, Wednesday, said: "We will carefully study the judgement and reflect on possible next steps."

For years, Brussels has taken aim at deals sought by individual bloc member nations to lure foreign multinationals but seen as undermining the EU's single market ethos and opportunity to gather revenues for social welfare expenditure.

Other setbacks recently for Brussels involved Starbucks  and Apple.

Last year, EU regulators also filed antitrust charges against Amazon as a large electronic commerce provider, accusing it of amassing data via its platform that gave it an unfair advantage. 

ipj/aw (AP, AFP, Reuters)