natgillin/translations-raw huggingface dataset:
Muligheden for at tilbyde passende tilbehør er særdeles vigtig for Amazon, navnlig for at sikre en positiv margin på dets salg af elektroniske varer.
As concluded in Recital 542, the remuneration paid from LuxOpCo to LuxSCS should be determined on the basis of a TNMM whereby LuxSCS is considered as the less complex entity to the License Agreement and the remuneration to be paid by LuxOpCo to LuxSCS should be determined with reference to LuxSCS as the tested party.
Se vidneforklaring fra [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 200, punkt 24-25, s. 201, punkt 1-7: »I mean, in general, it is life critical for a successful electronic retailer to sell accessories with the device for the simple reason you make no margin on the device or low margin, and you make higher margin on the accessories, with the exception of few others that have managed to make high margin on devices, but the usual stuff is, the money is made on the accessory and it's critical«.
The remuneration of LuxSCS should reflect the fact that it performs an intermediary function in relation to the Intangibles, in that it merely holds the legal ownership and the licenses to the Intangibles owned by ATI and A9 but passes on the rights to develop, enhance, manage and exploit the Intangbles to LuxOpCo for the purpose of LuxOpCo's operation of Amazon's European retail business.
Tilpasning af produktet med et passende udvalg af monteringstilbehør sker ikke kun ved hjælp af en algoritme, men kræver (lokal) menneskelig handling, se vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Am azon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 201, s. 203, punkt 8-11, punkt 9-17, s. 204, punkt 3-14: […].
It should also reflect the fact that LuxSCS itself at most performs solely limited functions in the form of general administrative services necessary to maintain its legal ownership of the Intangibles, which appear to be provided by external providers on LuxSCS's behalf (see Recital 429).
Se vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 21, afsnit 11-12 »You need to have something to sell, right?«; Se også Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for europæisk detailhandel, ansvarlig for alle detailprocesser i Europa, LuxOpCo, Luxembourg, tidligere landechef for Frankrig, Amazon.fr SAS, Clichy, Frankrig] 5. november 2014, punkt 918: 10-18: »One would say that if you don't have a product, you can't sell it. […] The more you add selection, the more your capacity to generate revenue increases«.
As regards the determination of the appropriate cost base to which a mark-up should be applied, the Commission notes that LuxSCS does not record any sales and does not assume the risk in relation to the Intangibles.
Amazons briefing efter retssagen, s. 18, punkt 36.
As a consequence, a cost-based remuneration should be used to determine the remuneration of LuxSCS, where a mark-up is applied only on the incurred external costs of its actual functions, but without a mark-up on the Buy-In and the CSA Costs, which are in reality just passed on by LuxSCS to A9 and ATI.
Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for international detailhandel, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæisk detailvirksomhed, ansvarlig for alle detailprocesser i Europa, LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 3. november 2014, punkt 420:3-4.
As regards the appropriate level of the mark-up to be applied on LuxSCS's costs, which is assumed to reflect actual functions related to the necessary maintenance of the ownership of the Intangibles under LuxOpCo's control, the Commission considers, on the basis of the experience underlying the 2010 JTPF Report, that an appropriate mark-up for low-value adding services, such as those provided by LuxSCS in relation to the Intangibles, should be 5 %.
Amazons briefing efter retssagen, s. 30, punkt 78.
However, where the facts and circumstances of the specific transaction support a different mark-up, that should be taken into consideration.
Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 42, afsnit 15-20.
The Luxembourg tax authorities are therefore invited, within two months of the notification of this Decision, to put forward and justify the final level of that mark-up by comparing that mark-up with comparable transactions with independent service providers.
Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 73, punkt 20-25, s. 74, punkt 2-6.
Should Luxembourg fail to do so, the Commission will accept a mark-up on LuxSCS's directly incurred external costs incurred in the maintenance of the ownership of the Intangibles of 5 %, to the extent that these costs reflect actual functions that are carried out by LuxSCS.
Lokaliseringens betydning blev bekræftet i forklaringerne fra Amazons medarbejdere: Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 95, punkt 5-6. »Retail is a very local thing, […]«; Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for europæisk detailhandel, ansvarlig for alle detailprocesser i Europa, LuxOpCo, Luxembourg, tidligere landechef for Frankrig, Amazon.fr SAS, Clichy, Frankrig] 5. november 2014, punkt 909: 10-17; »[…] important for us to understand is not what is selling somewhere else; it's what local customer needs and wants«.
In light of the foregoing considerations, the amount to be recovered should be determined: (i) by taking LuxOpCo's accounting profit in each of the years that the contested tax ruling was used to determine its corporate income tax liability; (ii) deduct therefrom the sum of Buy-In and CSA Costs, the costs for external services incurred for LuxSCS and the appropriate mark-up on the costs of those services to the extent that those costs reflects active functions by LuxSCS; (iii) apply to the resulting amount the ordinary rules of taxation of corporate profit in Luxembourg, including the standard corporate income tax, municipal tax, surcharges and wealth tax; and (iv) deduct from that amount the amount of tax effectively paid by LuxOpCo in each of the years that the contested tax ruling was in force.
Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 5. november 2014, punkt 961: 17-23.
ENTITY FROM WHOM THE AID IS TO BE RECOVERED
Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland] 13. juni 2014, s. 25, punkt 19-20.
In light of the observations in Recitals 607 to 610, the Commission considers that Luxembourg should, in the first place, recover the unlawful and incompatible aid granted by the contested tax ruling from LuxOpCo.
Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for internationalt salg, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæiske tredjepartsoperationer (f.eks. Marketplace), LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 4. november 2014, punkt 761:19-24.)
Should LuxOpCo not be in a position to repay the full amount of the aid received as a result of the contested tax ruling, Luxembourg should recover any remaining amounts from the Amazon group or/and any of its successors, or group companies, since it is the entity which controls the Amazon group, which is the single economic unit benefitting from the aid (see Section 9.5).
Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for internationalt salg, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæiske tredjepartsoperationer (f.eks. Marketplace), LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 4. november 2014, punkt 762:1-7, afsnit 763: 9-10; Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør for internationalt salg, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæiske tredjepartsoperationer (f.eks. Marketplace), LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 17. januar 2013, s. 23, punkt 23-25, s. 24, punkt 1-7: […].
In this manner, the undue advantage granted by the contested tax ruling is eliminated and the previously existing situation on the market is restored through recovery.
Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for internationalt salg, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæiske tredjepartsoperationer (f.eks. Marketplace), LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 4. november 2014, punkt 800: 19-23.
EVIDENCE RELIED UPON BY THE COMMISSION FOR A FINDING OF AID
Amazons briefing efter retssagen, s. 19, punkt 38.
Luxembourg claimed that some of the information relied upon by the Commission during the formal investigation was not available to its tax administration on the date on which it adopted the contested tax ruling and that, therefore, the Commission enjoys the benefit of hindsight when examining that ruling.
Amazons briefing efter retssagen, s. 61, punkt 182: I 2005 var Amazons prissætningsteknologi utilstrækkelig set i lyset af virksomhedens behov for at have konkurrencedygtige priser og var derfor stærkt afhængig af manuel indgriben.
The Commission observes that the arguments on which it bases its findings of advantage were available at that time.
Amazons briefing efter retssagen, s. 18-19, punkt 37.
This relates, in particular, to the functional analysis in the ruling request and the TP Report.
Se Amazon Final Transcripts: [Seniorvicedirektør for produktstyring — detail, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA], 17. november 2014, punkt 2883: 6-18, s. 78: »Ja.
In those documents, LuxSCS is clearly described as having neither employees nor a physical presence and its principal activities are described as being limited to those of an intangible holding company, and contract party to the CSA, to which it was supposed to contribute only financially.
It's — I think the emphasis, though, should be on, you know, when we do marketing, this is back during this time frame, and until very recently, that the biggest portion of our marketing was to drive very specific customer transactions.
By contrast, LuxOpCo is described as performing the functions of the European headquarters, assuming the risks and managing the strategic decision-making and key physical components of the Amazon's online retail business in Europe.
And so it says increase customer traffic to our websites, that would certainly be the largest piece and the way we do that is, you know, specifically by we have an associates program, we also use various online marketing and it's to drive — if someone searches on a Samsung TV, it's to try to drive them to our, you know, detail page to buy on that transaction.
These descriptions should have made the Luxembourg tax administration call into question the inaccurate and unsubstantiated assumption that LuxSCS would perform unique and valuable functions in relation to the Intangibles which underpins the transfer pricing arrangement endorsed by the contested tax ruling.
That's what we're attempting to do.«
In any event, as explained in Recital 620, the moment at which aid is granted to a taxpayer in the case of a tax ruling that endorses a method for determining its taxable income is each year that that taxpayer uses that ruling to determine its annual corporation tax liability and the tax administration accepts a declaration of taxable income determined on the basis of that method.
Dette program var af afgørende betydning for Amazon.
Consequently, any information that subsequently called into question the critical assumptions on which that ruling were based should have led either to a revision of that ruling or to a refusal by the Luxembourg tax administration to accept a tax declaration relying upon the transfer pricing arrangement endorsed in that ruling in the more than eight years in which LuxOpCo relied upon it to determine its corporate income tax liability in Luxembourg.
Se Amazon Final Transcripts: [Seniorvicedirektør for produktstyring — detail, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere vicedirektør/generaldirektør for global drift, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA] 14. november 2014, punkt 2755:1-7 […].
CONCLUSION
Amazon bruger betydelige midler på dette program, jf. tabel 7.
In conclusion, the Commission finds that Luxembourg, in breach of Articles 107(1) and 108(3) of the Treaty, has unlawfully granted State aid to LuxOpCo and the Amazon group by way of the contested tax ruling and by accepting each year a corporate income tax declaration based thereon which Luxembourg is required to recover by virtue of Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 from LuxOpCo and, if the latter fails to repay the full amount of the aid, from the Amazon group or any of its successors, or group companies for the outstanding amount of aid.
Se vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør for internationalt salg, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæiske tredjepartsoperationer (f.eks. Marketplace), LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 17. januar 2013, s. 175, punkt 1-3.
Accordingly, the Commission,
Markedsføringsorganisationen var en central drivkraft i bestræbelserne på at lede trafik til Amazons websted.
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Se også vidneforklaring fra [Vicedirektør for internationalt salg, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæiske tredjepartsoperationer (f.eks. Marketplace), LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 17. januar 2013, punkt 174: 10-12; Vidneforklaring [Seniorvicedirektør for produktstyring — detail, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA], 18. september 2014, punkt 36: 1-3; Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for europæisk detailhandel, ansvarlig for alle detailprocesser i Europa, LuxOpCo, Luxembourg, tidligere landechef for Frankrig, Amazon.fr SAS, Clichy, Frankrig] 5. november 2014, punkt 907: 1-2:[…]; og Amazon Final Transcripts: [Vicedirektør for udvikling af softwareteknologi, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
Article 1
US] 7. november 2014, punkt 1532:7-8: Associates-programmet bragte Amazon en »[…] pæn tilstrømning af kunder.[…].«
The tax ruling of 6 November 2003, by virtue of which Luxembourg endorsed a transfer pricing arrangement proposed by Amazon.com, Inc. that allowed Amazon EU S.á.r.l. to assess its corporate income tax liability in Luxembourg from 2006 to 2014 and the subsequent acceptance of the yearly corporate income tax declaration based thereon constitutes aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union that is incompatible with the internal market and that was unlawfully put into effect by Luxembourg in breach of Article 108(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør for internationalt salg, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA, tidligere chef for europæiske tredjepartsoperationer (f.eks. Marketplace), LuxOpCo, Luxembourg], 17. januar 2013, punkt 69: 24-25, s. 70: 1-6.
Article 2
Vidneforklaring [Seniorvicedirektør for produktstyring — detail, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA], 18. september 2014, p. 117, punkt 6-12: […].
Luxembourg shall recover the incompatible and unlawful aid referred to in Article 1 from Amazon EU S.á r.l.
Vidneforklaring [Seniorvicedirektør for produktstyring — detail, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA], 18. september 2014, s. 73. punkt 25. s. 74, punkt 1-7.
Any sums that remain unrecoverable from Amazon EU S.á r.l., following the recovery described in the preceding paragraph, shall be recovered from the Amazon group.
Vidneforklaring [Seniorvicedirektør for produktstyring — detail, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA], 18. september 2014, p. 182, punkt 1-4.
The sums to be recovered shall bear interest from the date on which they were put at the disposal of the beneficiaries until their actual recovery.
Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 105, punkt 25, s. 106, punkt 1-15: […], Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 107, punkt 2-5: […].
The interest shall be calculated on a compound basis in accordance with Chapter V of Regulation (EC) No 794/2004.
Vidneforklaring [Vicedirektør og leder for det tyske marked, Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, München, Tyskland], 13. juni 2014, s. 102, punkt 4-14.
Article 3
Se også vidneforklaring [Seniorvicedirektør for produktstyring — detail, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA], 18. september 2014, s. 41: punkt 22-25:[…].
Recovery of the aid granted referred to in Article 1 shall be immediate and effective.
Amazons brev af 22. juli 2016, s. 1.
Luxembourg shall ensure that this Decision is implemented within four months following its date of notification.
Amazons brev af 22. juli 2016: Amazon's Technology-Centric E-tailing-Business, s. 4.
Article 4
Amazon giver følgende eksempel: »By way of illustration, a very large brick-and-mortar retailer might have tens of thousands products for sale: in contrast, Amazon's European websites offered nearly 3.7 million distinct products for sale in 2005 and around [20-30] million in 2013.
Within two months following notification of this decision, Luxembourg shall submit information regarding the methodology used to calculate the exact amount of aid.
A very successful brick-and-mortar retailer might process tens of thousands transactions each year: in 2005, Amazon's European websites processed nearly 71 million distinct orders, and that number grew to over [1-1,5] billion in 2013.
Luxembourg shall keep the Commission informed of the progress of the national measures taken to implement this Decision until recovery of the aid granted referred to in Article 1 has been completed.
It would simply not be possible to employ a sufficient number of individuals, for example, to determine the price on millions of unique products — let alone to decide what the in-stock levels should be for those products or individually to process every customer order.«
It shall immediately submit, on simple request by the Commission, information on the measures already taken and planned to comply with this Decision.
Amazons brev af 22. juli 2016: Amazon's Technology-Centric E-tailing-Business, s. 3.
Article 5
Der gives følgende eksempel: »While some functionality, such as, for example, identity, which allows customers to log on the website, or Item Master Service, which maintains a catalogue of all products sold on Amazon, has been provided since the very first days of Amazon's operations, the underlying technology would have been rewritten entirely (and continuously) over the years.
This Decision is addressed to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
the identity technology used by Amazon in 2010 had little to do with the identity technology used prior to 2005 — the 2005 service has been disassembled and rewritten as a number of smaller, more manageable services that together provide the identity functionality, to adapt the technology to the evolution of the scope of Amazon's operations.«
Done at Brussels, 4 October 2017.
Amazons brev af 22. juli 2016: Amazon's Technology-Centric E-tailing-Business, s. 2-3.
OJ C 44, 6.2.2015, p. 13.
Fuldtidsækvivalent (FTE) er de timer, som en medarbejder har arbejdet på fuld tid.
If not otherwise stated, the Commission accepted all of Luxembourg's and Amazon's requests for an extension of deadline.
Amazons brev af 20. januar 2017, s. 2-4; Internt Amazon-dokument: EU Policies and Procedures Manual, af 1. maj 2006.
Confidential information.
Amazons brev af 8. februar 2017, s. 1-2, og vidneforklaring [Chef for internationale skatter og skattepolitik, Amazon Corporate LLC, USA], 24. april 2014, s. 200 punkt 23-201, punkt 3: […].
The designation ‘LuxOpCo’ is used by Amazon in its ruling requests of 23 October 2003 and 31 October 2003.
Ifølge Amazons brev af 8. februar 2017, s. 1-3, indgik LuxSCS og LuxOpCo en kreditaftale af 29. december 2006 til likviditetsstyring.
The designation ‘LuxSCS’ is used by Amazon in its ruling requests of 23 October 2003 and 31 October 2003.
Aftalen blev senere ændret og omarbejdet den 1. marts 2007, 1. januar 2009, 1. april 2011 og 1. januar 2012.
Several exchanges on confidentialities have taken place, which are however not separately mentioned in this Section.
»Back-to-back-activity: EHT [LuxSCS] will lend its funds to AEU [LuxOpCo] on an interest-bearing basis, and AEU [LuxOpCo] will invest the funds.« og »[…] all of the financing transactions existing between EHT [LuxSCS] and AEU [LuxOpCo] will be merged into one single debt instrument, which will have the characteristics of a Credit Facility.« Se Amazons brev af 5. marts 2015, bilag 22, s. 7.
OJ C 44, 6.2.2015, p. 30.
Amazons skrivelse fra den 8. februar 2017, s. 2.
Amazon internal documents: Amended and Restated Agreement to share Costs and Risks of Intangible Development entered into and effective as of 1 January 2005, Amended and Restated Agreement to share Costs and Risks of Intangible Development entered into on 2 July 2009 and effective as of 5 January 2009, and First amendment to Amended and Restated Agreement to share Costs and Risks of Intangible Development entered into in February 2014 and effective as of 1 January 2014.
LuxOpCos årsregnskaber 2006-2013.
Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union (OJ L 83, 27.3.1999, p. 1).
Definitionen af de relevante omkostninger findes i fodnote 61.
Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 was repealed and replaced by Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 of 13 July 2015 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (OJ L 248, 24.9.2015, p. 9), with effect from 14 October 2015.
Aftalerne om tjenesteydelser indeholder alle de samme bestemmelser om brugen af immaterielle aktiver (sektion 3), om erstatning (sektion 4), parternes status og forpligtelser (sektion 5), fortrolighed (sektion 6), aftalens løbetid og opsigelsesperiode (sektion 7), force majeure (sektion 8) og generelle bestemmelser (sektion 9).
Any reference to Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 may be construed as a reference to Regulation (EU) 2015/1589 and should be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex II to the latter regulation.
Definitionen af de relevante omkostninger i bilag 1 er identisk i alle serviceaftalerne.
See Recital 13.
Aftale om tjenesteydelser, punkt 2.1 (General).
The License Agreement was submitted by Amazon on 5 March 2015, Annex 4 (together with the later Amendment 1 of IP License Agreement as effective as of January 1 2009).
Aftale om tjenesteydelser mellem Amazon.fr Logistique SAS og LuxOpCo, punkt 2.2 (Fulfillment Services).
Amazon.com Inc., 2016 Annual Report, p. 3.
Aftale om tjenesteydelser mellem Amazon Logistik GmbH og LuxOpCo, punkt 2.2 (Fulfillment Services).
Amazon.com Inc., 2003 Annual Report, p. 5.
Aftale om tjenesteydelser mellem Amazon.co.uk Ltd og LuxOpCo, punkt 2.2 (Fulfillment Services), 2.3 (Customer and Merchant Services) og 2.4 (Support Services).
Fulfilment refers to the process initiated in a company when an order for a product is received.
Aftale om tjenesteydelser, punkt 5.1 (No Agency).
This includes warehousing, finding the item ordered, packaging it, and dispatching it (directly or through third parties).
Aftale om tjenesteydelser, punkt 5.2 (Provider Obligations).
https://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/benefits.htm/ref=asus_fba_hnav.
Aftale om tjenesteydelser, sektion 5 (Status and Liabilities of the Parties).
Amazon.com Inc., 2002 Annual Report, p. 2.
Den gældende opskrivningssats for Amazon.fr Sarl er [3-3,5] % for tjenester til kunder og handlende og [5-10] % for supporttjenester.
Amazon Post trial brief, p. 81, par.
Den gældende opskrivningssats for Amazon.de GmbH er [3-3,5] % for tjenester til kunder og handlende og [4-4,5] % for supporttjenester.
253.
Den gældende opskrivningssats for Amazon.fr Logistique SAS er [5-10] % for opfyldelsestjenester.
The term ‘EU websites’ as used throughout this Decision excludes www.amazon.nl, since this website was launched after the period subject to review in this Decision.
Den gældende opskrivningssats for Amazon Logistik GmbH er [5-10] % for opfyldelsestjenester.
Amazon.com Inc., 2016 Annual report, p. 3.
Den gældende opskrivningssats for Amazon.co.uk Ltd. er [3-3,5] % for opfyldelsestjenester, [3-3,5] % for tjenester til kunder og handlende og [4-4,5] % for supporttjenester.
Amazon.com Inc., 2016 Annual report, p. 4 and 67.