European Court of Justice Issues Advocate General Ruling on Luxembourgish State Aid to Amazon

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) June 8 issued an advocate general opinion for Case No. C-457/21 P, on Luxembourgish state aid to Amazon. The European Commission (EC) previously ruled that Amazon’s Luxembourgish subsidiary gained an undue tax reduction when it paid royalties to Amazon in violation of the arm’s length principle, constituting state aid. The General Court reversed the EC decision and held that the transfer pricing methods used didn’t provide Amazon with a selective advantage. On appeal, the advocate general upheld the General Court’s decision and opined that: 1) the EC incorrectly referred to the OECD transfer pricing ...