Fiat Chrysler v Commission

In Fiat Chrysler v Commission (Case T-759/15) (24 September 2019) the General Court of the European Union found that a ruling endorsing a transfer pricing method constituted state aid.

The Luxembourg tax authorities had issued a tax ruling in favour of Fiat Chrysler Finance Europe (FFT) which provided treasury and financing services to the Fiat group companies established in Europe. The ruling endorsed a method for determining FFT’s remuneration for these services which enabled FFT to determine its taxable profit on a yearly basis for corporate income tax in Luxembourg.

The commission had found that the tax ruling constituted state aid. Agreeing with the Commission the court found that the arrangements for the application of the transactional net margin method (TNMM) endorsed by the ruling were inappropriate and that the whole of FFT’s capital should have been taken into account and a single rate applied. Like the...