Brexit Britain wins key victory against EU trying to claw back millions

Britain has come out on top in its first legal battle with the EU as Brussels tries to claw millions of pounds from the UK.

The bloc is trying to recover the money from the London Stock Exchange after accusing the UK’s tax scheme of allowing illegal exemptions.

The EU competition enforcer said the UK’s Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) rules set up to try and encourage foreign companies to invest in Britain gave some companies an illegal advantage.

But the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has fallen on Britain’s side in the dispute.

The court said: “The Commission and the General Court erred in law in finding that the rules applicable to CFCs constituted the appropriate reference framework for examining whether a selected advantage had been conferred.

“The Court recalls that the Commission … is in principle required to accept the Member State’s interpretation of the relevant provisions of its national law, unless it is able to establish that another interpretation prevails in the case-law or the administrative practice of that Member State.”

The ruling cannot be appealed by Brussels.

The EU did not name any of the companies they deemed to have gained an illegal advantage from the tax scheme.

BBA Aviation, Chemring, Daily Mail & General, Diageo, Euromoney, Inchcape, Meggitt, Smith & Nephew and WPP have mentioned the EU investigation in their accounts.