The European Commission closed its formal State aid investigation into a Luxembourg tax ruling granted to Amazon in 2003, concluding it did not constitute State aid under Article 107(1) TFEU. The ruling had approved a TNMM-based royalty arrangement allocating profits between Luxembourg entities. Following annulment of the Commission's earlier negative decision by the Court of Justice in December 2023, the Commission adopted this closing decision in November 2024, published in November 2025 ... Continue to full case

Netflix Entertainment Services India LLP, the Indian subsidiary of Netflix, was characterised by tax authorities as an entrepreneurial licensee rather than a limited risk distributor, with its distribution fee recast as royalty. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal rejected this recharacterisation in 2025, ruling in favour of the taxpayer and upholding the transactional net margin method applied by Netflix India ... Continue to full case

Israel's tax authority assessed eBay Marketplace Israel Ltd. as a limited risk distributor using TNMM with operating margin as the profit level indicator. The company appealed, challenging the comparability analysis. The District Court remanded the case in April 2024, directing the tax authority to reissue assessments with adjustments for profitability cycles, double-counted transactions, double taxation risks, platform value contributions, and revised comparable company selection ... Continue to full case

The European Commission had concluded that Luxembourg granted Amazon unlawful State aid of around €250 million through a 2003 tax ruling endorsing inflated royalty payments to a non-taxable holding entity. The General Court annulled the decision in 2021, and the European Court of Justice upheld that annulment in December 2023, ruling the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines were not the applicable legal benchmark for assessing selective advantage under EU State aid rules ... Continue to full case

Google India made payments to Google Ireland for AdWords technology licences without withholding tax, prompting Indian authorities to assess USD 224 million in unpaid withholding tax. After the Karnataka High Court remanded the case, India's Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ruled in 2022 that the payments did not constitute royalties under the Income Tax Act or the India-Ireland tax treaty, as no underlying copyright was transferred ... Continue to full case

The European Commission had ordered Luxembourg to recover approximately €250 million in unpaid taxes from Amazon, arguing that a 2003 tax ruling unlawfully reduced Amazon EU's taxable profits by endorsing excessive royalty payments to a non-taxed holding entity. The EU General Court annulled the Commission's decision in May 2021, ruling that the Commission failed to establish that Amazon received an illegal State aid advantage under EU rules ... Continue to full case

A French Administrative Court of Appeal examined whether an Irish company had a permanent establishment in France, where local employees performed marketing, back-office and administrative services for the group. The tax authority argued French staff negotiated contracts and acted as representatives of the Irish entity. The court upheld the 2018 decision, finding French employees could not contractually commit the Irish principal without prior approval, confirming no PE existed ... Continue to full case

The district court of Paris has approved a  “convention judiciaire d’intérêt public” negotiated between the French state and Google for an amount of € 500 million plus another agreement with the French tax authorities which amounts to 465 million euros. The agreement puts an end to the French lawsuits against Google for aggressive tax evasion, and litigation with the tax administration relating to adjustments for the periods going from 2005 to 2018. The CJIP “convention judiciaire d’intérêt public“, was established by Article 22 of Law No. 2016-1691 of 9 December 2016 in France on transparency and fight against corruption. By Law No. 2018-898 of October 23, 2018 the law was extended to cover cases for tax evasion. According to the CJIP legal actions can be ended in return for the payment of a fine. The dispute concerned the existence of a permanent establishment of Google ... Continue to full case

Amazon restructured its European operations via a cost sharing arrangement requiring a buy-in payment for pre-existing intangibles. The IRS sought to include residual business assets such as goodwill, workforce in place, and going concern value. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Tax Court, ruling in 2019 that the regulatory definition of intangible is limited to independently transferable assets, largely favouring Amazon ... Continue to full case

The French tax administration argued that Google Ireland Limited maintained a permanent establishment in France through its local subsidiary, which assisted in selling online advertising to French customers. The Administrative Court of Appeal upheld the 2017 first-instance decision in 2019, finding that Google France lacked the independent capability to carry out advertising activities, and therefore no permanent establishment existed ... Continue to full case

Microsoft Denmark's tax authority argued that OEM sales of pre-installed software to Danish end users should have been included in calculating the company's local marketing commissions under its agreement with Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited. In a close 3-2 decision, the Danish Supreme Court ruled in favour of Microsoft, finding the tax authorities had not met the burden of proof required to justify a discretionary reassessment of the transfer pricing arrangement ... Continue to full case

South Dakota enacted a law requiring out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax without a physical presence in the state. The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision in 2018, overturned its earlier Quill ruling, holding that the physical presence requirement was wrongly decided and that states may impose sales tax obligations on remote sellers meeting economic nexus thresholds ... Continue to full case

India's Authority for Advance Rulings ruled in 2018 that Mastercard Asia Pacific Ltd had a permanent establishment in India through its global card payment processing network and related infrastructure. The AAR further held that processing fees paid by Indian banks to Mastercard's Singapore headquarters constituted royalty income but were taxable in India as business profits under the India-Singapore tax treaty, being effectively connected to the Indian PE ... Continue to full case

Danish tax authorities assessed Microsoft Denmark DKK 308 million, arguing the company had not been properly remunerated for marketing activities because OEM sales to Danish customers were excluded from local commission calculations. Microsoft argued for dismissal, citing similar cases lost or dropped by Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The Danish Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Microsoft in 2018, a decision later confirmed by the Supreme Court ... Continue to full case

A French Administrative Court of Appeal examined whether an Irish company had a permanent establishment in France, where French employees performed marketing, negotiation, and administrative services on its behalf. The tax authority argued local staff effectively concluded contracts. The court ruled in favour of the taxpayer, finding French employees could not contractually bind the Irish entity, as contracts required prior approval from Ireland before becoming enforceable ... Continue to full case

Google India paid licence fees to Google Ireland for AdWords technology without withholding tax as required under Indian law. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ruled in 2017 that this constituted tax evasion and ordered Google to pay USD 224 million in unpaid withholding tax. The decision favoured the Indian tax authority and Google subsequently appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of India ... Continue to full case

The European Commission found that Luxembourg granted illegal state aid to Amazon worth approximately €250 million. A 2003 tax ruling, extended in 2011, endorsed inflated royalty payments from Amazon EU to a non-taxable holding entity, shifting the vast majority of profits outside the Luxembourg tax base. The Commission concluded the arrangement did not reflect economic reality and constituted a selective advantage under EU state aid rules ... Continue to full case

The French tax administration argued that Google Ireland Limited had a permanent establishment in France, as it sold online advertising services to French customers through Google France. The Paris Administrative Court ruled in 2017 that Google France lacked the capability to independently carry out the advertising activities, and therefore no permanent establishment existed in France ... Continue to full case

Following Microsoft's USD 90 million acquisition of Gteko Ltd., Israeli tax authorities challenged the subsequent USD 26 million transfer of Gteko's intellectual property as undervalued. The authorities argued the transaction represented a going-concern transfer of all assets, not merely specific intangibles. The Israel District Court agreed in 2017, holding that value does not disappear and setting the arm's length price at USD 80 million ... Continue to full case

Microsoft challenged IRS summonses in a transfer pricing dispute involving a Puerto Rico IP subsidiary used to shift income. The IRS engaged outside law firm Quinn Emanuel to assist the audit, which Microsoft argued was an improper delegation of authority. The US District Court disagreed, ruling the IRS had a legitimate purpose and ordering Microsoft to produce the requested documents ... Continue to full case