The Court of Justice of the European Union overturns the European Commission Decision against Starbucks
Today, the General Court annuls the Commission’s decision on the State Aid measure implemented by the Netherlands in favour of Starbucks The Commission was unable to demonstrate the existence of an advantage in favour of Starbucks. Furthermore, the Court therefore rejects the claim that the Commission erred in identifying an arm’s length principle as a criterion for assessing the existence of State aid. According to the Court, the Commission has not managed to demonstrate the existence of an economic advantage within the meaning of Article 107 TFEU.
The Court of Justice of the European Union upholds the Commission’s decision on the aid measure granted by Luxembourg to Fiat Chrysler Finance Europe
In today’s judgment, the General Court dismisses the actions and confirms the validity of the Commission’s decision. The Court concluded that the Commission correctly found that the arrangements for the application of the transactional net margin method (TNMM) endorsed by the tax ruling at issue were incorrect and, specifically, that the whole of FFT’s capital should have been taken into account and a single rate should have been applied. In any event, the Commission also correctly considered that the method consisting, on the one hand, in using FFT’s hypothetical regulatory capital and, on the other, in excluding FFT’s shareholdings in Fiat Finance North America (FFNA) and Fiat Finance Canada (FFC) from the amount of the capital to be remunerated could not result in an arm’s length outcome.
The Court considers that recovery of the aid at issue does not breach the principle of legal certainty or infringe the rights of the defence.
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