The Luxembourg government announced on Friday it will appeal against the European Commission’s decision in the Amazon case Mike Zenari/archive

The Luxembourg government announced on Friday it will appeal against the European Commission’s decision in the Amazon case Mike Zenari/archive

On 4 October 2017, the European commission ruled that the grand duchy unfairly let Amazon off the hook for €250m in corporate taxes.

In a press release published on Friday, the finance ministry said that the government had decided to lodge an appeal.

“Luxembourg believes that the Commission has not established the existence of a selective advantage within the meaning of article 107 TFUE. Furthermore, Luxembourg does not share the Commission’s analysis with regard to transfer pricing,” the press statement read.

The appeal will seek clarification of the law. The statement further stressed Luxembourg’s “commitment to tax transparency and the fight against harmful tax practices.”

Back in October, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: “Luxembourg gave illegal tax benefits to Amazon. As a result, almost three quarters of Amazon’s profits were not taxed. In other words, Amazon was allowed to pay four times less tax than other local companies subject to the same national tax rules. This is illegal under EU state aid rules. Member states cannot give selective tax benefits to multinational groups that are not available to others.”