Amazon wins its appeal at the European General Court
The European Commission did not prove that Amazon had secured an “undue reduction” in its tax base, according to a May 12 ruling by the General Court. As a result, the court found that there was “no selective advantage” in favour of Amazon’s Luxembourg-based subsidiary.
The court, which is a constituent court of the European Court of Justice (CJEU), said the Commission’s 2017 findings on the case were “incorrect in several respects”. This is a serious blow to the Commission’s efforts to curtail what it sees as abusive tax structures perpetrated by multinational enterprises (MNEs) such as Apple.