Italy probes Amazon for an alleged tax evasion of 1.2 billion euros

Italian prosecutors are investigating the Amazon electronic commerce giant and three of its executives for alleged tax evasion worth 1.2 billion euros ($ 1.26 billion), two sources said with direct knowledge of the matter on Friday.

The news of the investigation occurred last year, but the details about its extension arose on Friday, it reported for the first time by the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

Amazon said in a statement sent by email to Reuters that I would not comment on ongoing investigations.

“Amazon undertakes to comply with all applicable fiscal laws,” said the company, and stressed that it was among the 50 main tax taxpayers in Italy, with its tax bill for the country that exceeds $ 1.4 billion in 2023.

The prosecutors and the fiscal police of Milan placed the three managers and the European unit based in Amazon Luxembourg under investigation of fiscal fraud in online sales in Italy during 2019-2021, Las Fuentes said on Friday.

They said the Amazon bill could increase to 3 billion euros, taking into account fines and interest.

According to the sources, the Amazon algorithm allows you to sell in the property of Italy of vendors that are not from the EU, mostly Chinese, without revealing their identity, helping them to avoid paying the Italian Value Added Tax (VAT).

According to Italian law, an intermediary that offers products for sale in Italy is co -presiding for VAT default by vendors that are not from the EU that use its electronic commerce platform.

If the accusations stand in the courts, they could represent a threat to the Amazon business model in Europe, since VAT is a harmonized European tax, the two sources said.

The investigation, which began in 2021, resulted from the routine controls carried out by the Fiscal Police in an area north of Milan, the two sources said. They could not be appointed because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the subject.

In another case, the Italian Fiscal Police in July 2024 seized approximately 121 million euros of an Italian Amazon unit as part of an investigation into alleged fiscal fraud and illegal labor practices that are ongoing.

Milan prosecutors accused the Amazon Italia Transport logistics unit of avoiding labor and fiscal laws, trusting cooperatives or limited liability companies that provide workers by omitting VAT tasks and reducing social security payments.

In response, Amazon said at that time that he had respected the necessary rules.

($ 1 = 0.9555 euros)

(Emilio Parodi report, Edition of Alise Armellini, Barbara Lewis and Alistair Bell)