In accordance with Article 22 of its 1996 Model Treaty, most double taxation conventions entered into by the United States contain a number of rules called limitation on benefits clauses, the purpose of which is to prevent the application of the benefits of the treaties to treaty shopping structures. Following the changes in the Commentaries on Article 1 of the OECD Model Tax Convention in 2003, a number of clauses similar to those provided in the United States Model Treaty have been included.rnrnIn this study, the legal framework and application of these rules is analysed in depth, and particularly, taking into account those rules included in the double taxation conventions concluded between the United States and European Union member states. In this respect, the compatibility of these rules with European Community Law is also analysed in the last chapter.rnrnThis study is based on the authors doctoral thesis, which was awarded the prize for the best doctoral thesis on financial and tax law by the Spanish Instituto de Estudios Fiscales (Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda) in 2002.