ABSTRACT – The Opinion delivered by AG Kokott on the 8th of June 2023 in Amazon case (Case C-457/21 P, Commission v Amazon.com and Others) offers an interesting opportunity to discuss the role of the arm’s length principle in European Union law. This blogpost provides a brief reconstruction of the most relevant features of the case by identifying the measure concerned and analysing the decision of the Commission qualifying it as unlawful State aid, the judgment delivered by the General Court and, finally, the AG’s Opinion. It shows that the arguments put forward by the AG are in line with the Fiat case and, if upheld by the Court, they could be the ground for following cases. It is argued that this solution respects national tax autonomy and it is consistent with established case law on the assessment of selective advantage in State aid cases. The important challenge of ensuring that also multinational groups pay their fair share of taxes should be addressed by using other instruments that allow achieving the level of tax harmonisation necessary for this purpose.
