Margrethe Vestager, the EU official in charge of antitrust

issues, also took Ireland to court for failing to collect a massive 13 billion euros ($15.3 billion) in back taxes from Apple Inc.
She argued that, like in Amazon's case, the company had profited from a deal with the country that had allowed it to avoid paying most of the taxes the EU felt were due.
The EU has taken aim at such past deals, which member states had used to lure foreign companies in search of a place to establish their EU headquarters. The practice led to EU states competing with each other and multinationals playing them off one another.
EU states are now trying to harmonize their tax rules, but Wednesday's and previous rulings seek to redress years of tax avoidance.
Vestager said that U.S. online retailer Amazon had unfairly profited from special low tax conditions since 2003 in tiny Luxembourg, where its European headquarters are based.
Vestager insisted she was not specifically targeting U.S. companies with her cases, which have also included big fines on Google.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-eu-luxembourg-million-taxes-amazon.html#jCp