Luxembourg challenges Commission’s Amazon tax rulings

On 26 February 2018, the Commission published in the OJEU details of Luxembourg’s appeal against the Commission’s finding that the selective tax treatment of Amazon EU S.à r.l. (Amazon) constituted state aid worth €250 million.Luxembourg contends that the Commission failed to establish the existence of an advantage in favour of Amazon and also argues that the Commission failed to establish that the tax ruling in question is selective in nature.Additionally, Luxembourg claims that the Commission undertook covert fiscal harmonisation, thereby infringing the exclusive competence of Member States in the area of direct taxation, and that the Commission infringed Luxembourg’s rights of defence.