Luxembourg's prosecutor is reportedly unhappy about what it views as the leniency of punishments meted out to former employees of PwC who leaked data about tax agreements with corporations.

Luxembourg’s prosecutor is to call for tougher sentences to be imposed on two former PricewaterhouseCoopers employees for leaking data about the jurisdiction’s tax agreements with corporations, a media report said.

The appeal will also challenge the acquittal of a TV journalist, who made one of the first reports about the tax-saving arrangements between Luxembourg and international corporations, the prosecutor's spokeswoman is quoted as saying by Reuters this week. The data was also used in the high-profile “LuxLeaks” revelations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in November 2014, the report said. The ICIJ has been involved this year in a massive leak of data from Panama, adding to other campaigns targeting Guernsey and British Virgin Islands.

As reported by this news service earlier in 2016, Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet, both French citizens, received suspended sentences of 12 and nine months respectively. Deltour was also fined €1,500 ($1,665) while Halet was fined €1,000. Both have said they would appeal. French television journalist Edouard Perrin, who used the leaked data for a broadcast made in 2012, was acquitted of all charges. 

The leaked documents showed that companies such as PepsiCo, AIG and Deutsche Bank secured deals from the tiny European state to reduce their tax deals. What they did was not illegal, and defenders of such practices say that if policymakers are upset at such tax avoidance, it is up to lawmakers to introduce better laws, or to slash corporate taxes across the board. In the US, for example, the corporate tax rate is 40 per cent, almost double the global average (source: KPMG, 2016 data).