Transfer Pricing of Advertisement, Marketing and Brand
Promotion expenses - An analysis of Delhi High
Court ruling in the case of Sony Ericsson
Mobile Communications India Pvt. Ltd.*
Transfer Pricing dispute on account of benchmarking of the
marketing intangible resulting from Advertising, Marketing and
[brand] Promotion expenses (AMP expenses) incurred by the
Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs) operating as licensed
manufacturers or distributors in India, has been the bone of
contention and has been engaging attention of the courts for some
time. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand have adopted OECD
guidelines as part of their Transfer Pricing legislation, empowered
the tax authorities to examine the AMP expenses incurred by the
taxpayers and make adjustments if adequate compensation is not
received by taxpayers for performing the marketing function. US
Transfer Pricing regulations authorize the tax administration to
make allocations among the members of the
