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EU shuts three tax probes after court rulings

The European Commission has closed tax-linked State-aid investigations into Fiat, Amazon, and Starbucks.

The move follows judgments handed down by the EU courts in the cases.

In 2015 and 2017, the commission had found that Luxembourg granted selective tax advantages to Fiat and Amazon, and the Netherlands to Starbucks, in breach of EU state-aid rules.

Guidance

The EU body’s original decisions in all three cases were ultimately annulled by the EU courts, but the relevant investigations remained open.

The commission said today (28 November) that, considering the guidance of the EU courts, it had adopted three final decisions closing its in-depth probes.

According to the commission, the decisions confirm that, when granting their respective tax rulings, Luxembourg and the Netherlands “did not give Fiat, Amazon and Starbucks selective tax advantages contrary to EU state-aid rules”.

Benchmark

Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the EU courts had confirmed in the recent Apple judgment that “the commission was right in challenging certain aggressive tax ruling practices”.

“In other judgments, they have also set the benchmark to assess tax-planning practices under EU state-aid rules.

“Today, taking into account all of the EU courts’ findings, we have concluded that Fiat, Amazon, and Starbucks did not receive a selective advantage over other companies,” she concluded.