The case of Amazon’s business restructuring involving a cost-sharing agreement (CSA) has already been dealt with in TPI in 2017 after the first decision was issued. However, while the 2017 decision focused mainly on the determination of the value of the intangibles contributed by Amazon to the CSA with Amazon Europe, the following 2019 decision dealt purely with the definition of intangibles under the law binding in the period 2005 to 2006. This is when the company effectively centralised its European operations in Luxembourg and created a CSA with Amazon Europe, contributing a significant number of intangibles developed aforehand in the U.S. As the U.S. transfer pricing rules have been amended twice over the last years (in 2009 and in 2017), certain confusion arose as to the application of the accurate laws that also influenced this case in respect of the applicable definition of intangibles.
