How Amazon, Facebook Could Challenge Europe’s Digital Taxes

Six European countries face inevitable legal challenges on new digital taxes they’re imposing on the revenues of tech giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., according to tax practitioners.

Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and the U.K. launched their own digital service tax (DST) regimes in 2019 after talks on a European Union-wide 3 percent levy stalled. While none of these countries has published full guidance on their plans, some like France have said the taxes will apply retroactively from the beginning of 2019.

But the new rules could meet stiff resistance. Challenges will likely arise at the start of ...