Amazon won, but Engie lost the court appeal in Luxembourg tax cases
The European General Court has ruled that Amazon’s cost-sharing arrangement in Luxembourg did not breach EU competition law. The General Court says that there was no selective advantage in favour of a Luxembourg subsidiary of the Amazon group; as such, it annuls the Commission’s decision declaring the aid incompatible with the internal market. Accordingly, Amazon will not be expected to pay 250 million euros in back taxes. As regards Engie in Luxembourg, the General Court has confirmed the Commission’s decision that a set of tax rulings issued by Luxembourg artificially reduced Engie’s tax bill by around 120 million euros. Read more… (Krisztina Széles)
A major goal within the 2013 reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is “greening” of farming activities (that is land use change to environmentally more beneficial farming practices). The CAP provides direct incentives for such activities by means of green subsidies. This note summarise the results of an “auction game” testing the farmer’s motivation for using one of the specific instruments of that greening policy.