BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s second-top court on Thursday annulled an EU order to Amazon to pay about 250 million euros ($303.28 million) in back taxes to Luxembourg, part of an EU crackdown against unfair tax deals between multinationals and EU countries.
The Luxembourg-based General Court said Amazon had not enjoyed a selective advantage in its tax deal with Luxembourg.
“The Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group,” judge said.
The European Commission in its 2017 ruling said the Grand Duchy spared the U.S. online retailer from paying taxes on almost three-quarters of its profits from EU operations by allowing it to channel profits to a holding company tax-free.
The cases are T-816/17 Luxembourg v Commission & T-318/18 Amazon EU v Commission.
($1 = 0.8243 euros)
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Marine Strauss)
