Citing a company spokesman, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has commenced booking revenue from retail sales in individual European countries, instead of funneling all sales through low-tax Luxembourg.
The report specified that the online retailer's change of tax practices, which was made effective May 1, was mainly due to intense scrutiny of corporate tax practices in Europe.
On 7 October 2014, the European Commission has opened an investigation regarding Amazon in Luxembourg to examine whether the country provided any selective advantage to the company in the context of issuing a tax ruling.
Amazon has implemented the structure, with local branches booking revenue, in the U.K., Germany, Italy and Spain, according to the report.
The EU is investigating whether tax system of multinationals in individual EU countries complies with EU state aid rules. The Commission announced in 2014 that it has opened formal investigations in three cases, respectively: Apple Inc. (AAPL) in Ireland, Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) in the Netherlands and Fiat Finance & Trade in Luxembourg.