The EU General Court overturned the EC's verdict in the Amazon case

The General Court of the European Union (EU) sided with the US online store Amazon and annulled the European Commission's (EC) decision that the US giant received illegal state aid from Luxembourg in the form of a tax reduction. "According to the General Court, the Commission has not proved to the requisite legal standard that the tax burden on Amazon's European subsidiary has been unduly reduced," the court said in a press release on Wednesday. The EU's Second Supreme Court has therefore annulled the Commission's 2017 decision, against which both Amazon and Luxembourg appealed. The Commission made a number of errors in its analysis of the tax advantages granted by Luxembourg to Amazon. Thus, in the light of these findings, the Commission has not demonstrated that Amazon gained an unfair competitive advantage through the Luxembourg tax regime, the statement states. An appeal may be lodged against the judgment with the European Court of Justice, which is the supreme tribunal of the bloc. In autumn 2017, the European Commission announced that, following its investigation, Luxembourg had granted undue tax advantages to Amazon worth approximately € 250 million. According to the European Commission, this was unlawful aid, which allowed Amazon to pay significantly lower taxes than other companies. It ordered Luxembourg to recover the unlawful aid.