The Commission no longer believes that selective advantages were granted by Luxembourg to Fiat and Amazon and by the Netherlands to Starbucks.

In 2015 and 2017, the Commission found that a tax ruling issued by the respective national tax authority artificially lowered the tax paid by each company and therefore granted them a selective advantage over other companies.

The Commission’s original decisions in all three cases were ultimately annulled by the EU courts, though the respective in-depth investigations remained open.

Taking into account the guidance of the courts, the Commission has now adopted three final decisions closing its in-depth investigations.

The decisions confirm that, when granting their respective tax rulings, Luxembourg and the Netherlands did not give Fiat, Amazon and Starbucks selective tax advantages contrary to EU state aid rules.  

Margrethe Vestager, the Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, said: “The EU courts have confirmed in the recent Apple judgment that the Commission was right in challenging certain aggressive tax ruling practices.

“In other judgments, they have also set the benchmark to assess tax planning practices under EU state aid rules.

“Today, taking into account all of the EU Courts findings, we have concluded that Fiat, Amazon, and Starbucks did not receive a selective advantage over other companies.”