LUXEMBOURG: Starbucks won its fight on Tuesday against an EU demand to pay up to 30 million euros ($33 million) in Dutch back taxes, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles lost its challenge against an order to stump up a similar amount to Luxembourg.
Both cases were part of European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s crackdown on unlawful tax breaks offered by EU countries to multinationals, which has also extended to Apple’s Irish deal and Amazon’s Luxembourg deal, among others.
The judgements show that the General Court, Europe’s second-highest court, in general endorses the European Commission’s methodology in its tax crackdown but stipulates the Commission must do its homework properly to prove its case — potentially a bad omen for Apple fighting a record 13-billion-euro Irish tax order.
It is an important legal victory for the Commission, said Dimitrios Kyriazis, head of Law Faculty at New College of the Humanities London.
“Regardless of the outcome of individual cases, the Court seems to have sanctioned the Commission’s approach,” he said. — Reuters
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