On 4 October 2017, the European Commission announced the adoption of a decision finding that tax benefits granted to Amazon in Luxembourg are illegal under EU State aid rules. The decision is the result of an investigation launched in 2014 into a tax ruling provided for Amazon by the Luxembourg tax authorities in 2003 and extended in 2011 ({News-2015-01-16/A/5-previous coverage}).
The ruling basically allowed Amazon to deduct excessive royalty expense in Europe without the royalty income b…