It is the first oil and gas giant to respond. The American group ExxonMobil seized, on December 28, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) against the tax on the “superprofits” of the energy giants decided by Brussels last September. This could, according to the company, “discourage investment”.
The “temporary solidarity contribution” was adopted by the European Commission with the aim of reducing the consumer bill. It is supposed to be paid for by the producers and distributors of oil, gas and coal who have made huge profits thanks to the surge in prices due to the war in Ukraine. In concrete terms, this charge allows EU Member States to deduct 33% of taxable profits for 2022, which are more than 20% higher than the average for the years 2019-1921, in order to redistribute them to households and businesses faced with the explosion of price.
“We are aware that the energy crisis in Europe is weighing heavily on families and businesses, and we are working to increase Europe’s energy supply,” said a spokesperson for the company in a message sent to the company. AFP. But taxing superprofits, the company says, “will undermine investor confidence, discourage investment and increase dependence on imported energy and petroleum products.”
25 billion to finance the ecological transition
By not qualifying the temporary solidarity contribution as a “tax” when it was created (this would have required the unanimous agreement of the Twenty-Seven), the EU had sought to avoid this kind of procedure before the CJEU. The latter allows a company to seize European justice when it considers that the EU has infringed its rights. The Commission “took note of the complaint lodged” by ExxonMobil, but “maintains that the measure in question was in full compliance with EU law”.
The mechanism, which “targets excessive profits in oil, gas, coal”, is precisely intended to “maintain the incentives to invest for the green energy transition”. The funds collected – which could reach 25 billion euros according to Brussels – will be exclusively donated to vulnerable consumers and companies and energy-intensive industrialists, argued the spokesperson for the Commission.
The first stone throw of a possible slingshot
During a presentation to investors in early December, the financial director of ExxonMobil estimated that the European tax would cost the group “more than two billion dollars”. In total, the company posted a net profit of $37.6 billion in the second and third quarters alone. US President Joe Biden himself deplored, at the end of October, that the profits generated by hydrocarbon companies thanks to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict were returned to shareholders while prices at the pump for motorists remained high. He had denounced “war profits”.
So far, there has been no other serious announcement from companies following this new device. At the beginning of December, the French giant TotalEnergies nevertheless decided to reduce its investments in the North Sea by a quarter, in reaction to a similar tax on superprofits announced by the United Kingdom. Introduced in May, the latter is more severe than its European double: it increases the taxation of gas companies from 25% to 35% until 2028. TotalEnergies then estimated that it would have to pay one billion euros in six countries. of the European Union in 2022 if the temporary European solidarity contribution were properly applied everywhere.