The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has determined that the European Commission was wrong when it found that Luxembourg granted illegal state aid to energy company Engie, through so-called tax rulings. The decision has strong similarities to the Apple tax case, which is also due to be heard by the ECJ later this month. The Commission claimed that, in tax rulings, Engie was granted tax treatment whereby nearly all the profits made by two subsidiaries in Luxembourg would remain untaxed. The Advocate General has argued that tax rulings are only a problem if they breach national laws, or are not open to all taxpayers. Last November, the ECJ ruled that a tax ruling provided to Fiat by Luxembourg was not illegal state aid, while Luxembourg also won a case against an ECJ decision that it should collect €250m in back taxes from Amazon EU.
