Starbucks heads to European Court against Europe's claim

Starbucks is not planning to just accept Europe’s demand to pay back 25.7 million euro in illegal state aid, which is why it has now filed a suit with the European Court.

“No careful and impartial investigation”

Starbucks took the case to the highest European court in September, to get the European Commission’s ruling annulled, but the news just broke and was confirmed by a spokesperson of said court. According to Starbucks, Danish EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager made mistakes and insufficiently supported her decision. The coffee chain’s lawyers claim the Commission’s investigation was not “careful and impartial”.

The Europe-Starbucks dispute tackles the 2008-2014 period, when Starbucks made use of the now infamous Dutch tax route: if a chain had a subsidiary paying royalties to another subsidiary, it could actually deduct this from a subsidiary’s profit if it was based in the Netherlands. EU Competition Commissioner Vestager says that was an obvious case of illegal state aid. The Dutch government also appealed the decision, but it remains to be seen when the case will actually go to court.