LuxLeaks
Following a new appeal, the Luxembourg higher Court rendered in January 2018 a distinct judgment for the two defendants and fully granted the whistleblower status for one of them.
The LuxLeaks revelations have had a worldwide impact, as ICIJ partnered its investigations with many media around the world: CNBC (USA),[7] CBC (Canada),[8] The Irish Times (Ireland),[9] Le Monde (France),[10] Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland),[11] Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany),[12] The Asahi Shimbun (Japan),[13] El Confidencial (Spain)[14] and many others.
[16] Although the ICIJ LuxLeaks and WikiLeaks show similarity in names and operating mode (as international, online, non-profit, journalistic organisations publishing confidential or secret information), this does not imply any known connection between them.
In October 2015, the European Commission concluded that the tax deals in favour of Fiat Finance and Trade in Luxembourg and Starbucks in the Netherlands are illegal state aid.
On 27 November 2014, the vote led to the European Parliament rejecting the motion of censure, as mainstream political groups supported Jean-Claude Juncker.
[47] Reactivation of the committee follows press' disclosure of documents, which demonstrates how some countries within the European Commission have been obstructive for more than ten years regarding any reform of the systems allowing aggressive tax avoidance.
[50] Non-governmental organizations (NGO) and Members of European Parliament (MEP) consider these measures insufficient as no public release of the rulings is expected.
In introducing the action plan, Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said "Corporate taxation in the EU needs radical reform [and] everyone must pay their fair share".
[57] The action plan on fairer taxation proposes to re-launch the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, four years after its previous attempt met Member States' opposition.
NGOs expressed doubts that this action plan would successfully eradicate multinational companies' profit shifting and underlined the lack of willingness in acting quickly on the subject.
[59] The European Commission released on 27 January 2016 a new Action Plan, including anti-tax avoidance measures such as the automatic exchange of key information related to multinationals' activities.
[61] In 2016, European Member States came to an agreement on fighting against the main tax optimization tools used by companies within Europe and adopted a first Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD).
However, the final political agreement could be reached only with the inclusion of exemptions and an increased implementation time length, which are expected to weaken the effects of this deal.
[62] In spring 2017, a complementary Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD II) was adopted to fight differences in tax treatment among firms under EU and third countries’ laws.
[73] However, in January 2017, The Guardian publishes revelations showing that Luxembourg continues obstructing tax reforms efforts in Brussels, as was the case when Jean-Claude Juncker was the Grand-Duchy Prime Minister.
[74] In Luxembourg, LuxLeaks revelations are often considered as a national trauma due to the stigma made to the country, perceived abroad as "tied to banking secrecy".
In 2016, Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for Competition, said: "I think everyone should thank both the whistleblower and the investigative journalists who put a lot of work into this"[76] by contributing to changing the debate about corporate taxation in Europe.
Despite its exceptions foreseen for journalists and whistleblowers, this directive appears as an additional legal instrument for companies - especially large groups – in order to control the information available about them.
In December 2014, the British parliamentary Public Accounts Committee interviewed Kevin Nicholson (head of tax division in PwC UK) for the second time in two years.
Commenting on the report, Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the committee, says PwC's activities represent "nothing short of the promotion of tax avoidance on an industrial scale".
On 12 December 2014, the Luxembourg prosecutor's office announced that an investigating judge had charged someone with theft, disclosing of confidential information and trade secrets, money laundering and fraud, following the complaint filed by PwC in 2012 against a former employee.
On 23 December 2014, more than 70 politicians, academics, union heads and charity leaders around the world signed in The Guardian an open letter in opposition to the decision by Luxembourg to prosecute Antoine Deltour.
[90][91] On 10 September 2015, Antoine Deltour was jointly nominated, together with two other whistleblowers – Stéphanie Gibaud and Edward Snowden – for the 2015 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
On 23 January 2015, Raphaël Halet, another former PricewaterhouseCoopers employee was charged for similar accusations as was Antoine Deltour, following the leak of 16 tax returns of US companies.
[95] On 23 April 2015, the journalist Edouard Perrin was indicted in Luxembourg for being the co-author or accomplice of the offences committed by the former PwC employee charged on 23 January.
[98] Following PricewaterhouseCoopers' complaint, the trial of the three people involved in the disclosure of secret tax agreements was held from 26 April to 11 May 2016 at the Criminal Court of Luxembourg, for eight half-day hearings, instead of the five initially scheduled.
During their hearings, Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet emphasized their role of whistleblowers disclosing multinational companies' aggressive tax planning practices, which are immoral and extremely detrimental to the common good.
The defense lawyers pleaded for the acquittal of their clients on the basis of the freedom of expression as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights.
[101] In 2016 the EU adopted new rules on companies' trade secrets; in the meantime, the project of a directive on the general whistleblowers' protection doesn't go ahead.
"[105] Several MEPs took part in the citizen and European mobilisation, bringing together several hundred of people in front of the courthouse in Luxembourg at the opening of the appeal trial.
