The European Union has lost a high-profile case in which it was trying to force Amazon to pay $300 million in back taxes.
It’s not uncommon for corporations to make tax deals with individual EU states. Apple and Google have both made deals with Ireland, and Amazon had a deal with Luxembourg. In many cases, the deals are lucrative for individual states, making them eager to work with foreign companies.
The EU isn’t always pleased with those deals, however, and has tried to end them in the past. The EU lost a court case trying to stop a deal between Apple and Ireland, and now it has lost a similar case over Amazon and Luxembourg.
According to The Houston Chronicle, the EU’s executive branch had ordered Amazon to pay back taxes in the amount of $300 million. After challenging the ruling, the EU’s General Court overturned the European Commission’s ruling, saying it didn’t prove “to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group.”
The decision is a big win for Amazon, as well as other foreign companies doing business within the EU.