Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") annulled the decision of the Commission that had decided that Luxembourg had granted Amazon unlawful State aid of about EUR 250 million in a tax ruling confirming the arm's length nature of deductible royalty payments by a Luxembourg operating company to a tax transparent Luxembourg partnership.
Following Advocate General Kokott's opinion, the CJEU considers
that the Commission had wrongly determined the "reference
system", which is the first step in analysing a national
measure in order to be able to categorise it as State aid. It is
worth noting that the CJEU upheld the judgment of the General Court
which had annulled the decision of the Commission but not on the
same grounds.
For more background on AG Kokott's opinion, please check out
our previous Newsletter dated 10 July 2023.
This decision is in line with CJEU's previous rulings in Engie
and Fiat cases (see our previous Newsflash and
Article in this respect).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
