Multinational companies can expect the European Commission to press on with a crack down on sweetheart tax deals after handing Apple a breathtaking demand for 13 billion euros, officials and experts said on Wednesday.
But Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager may be tempted to train her fire on European companies after a string of investigations of US global giants, especially after Tuesday's Apple verdict, has enraged the United States.
The order to the iPhone maker to pay back taxes to Ireland on the grounds that Dublin illegally favored Apple with a tax regime that amounted to a competition-distorting subsidy was the biggest of 38 decisions by Vestager since the Commission began probing some 1,000 companies in up to 23 European Union (EU) states in 2013.
Another US firm, coffee chain Starbucks, was ordered to repay up to 30 million euros to the Netherlands and a unit of Italy's Fiat must hand a similar sum to Luxembourg. In a separate case involving 35 firms in Belgium, many were not identified but some were also from the United States.
The Commission will not say when a decision is likely on two outstanding cases involving two more US firms, Amazon and McDonald's, both in Luxembourg.
Set alongside a series of high-profile antitrust probes into Google and Vestager has a case to answer on charges of anti-American activity — albeit one that she strenuously denies.
Nonetheless, people involved in competition law in Europe, many of whom declined to speak on the record for this story, reckon the Commission may choose a company closer to home for any major new enquiry.
"It is quite obvious that the Commission will not be able to investigate 1,000 tax rulings. It will only go after manifest violations," said Georg Berrisch, partner at law firm Baker Botts, who noted the fertile ground the Commission may have in evidence turned up in 2014 by leaked data from Luxembourg.
"It will have to pick and choose a few cases, maybe look into European companies. Luxleaks mentioned several European companies having tax deals with Luxembourg," Berrisch said.
Vestager, arguably the most powerful official in the EU due to her individual power to rule on competition cases across the 28-nation bloc, makes no secret of her reliance on others at times to provide the evidence that can justify her enquiries.
For all the fury in Washington over Apple, that and the other current cases were all launched on the back of revelations provided by a US Senate subcommittee enquiry into taxation. It is unclear how many companies may face... read full story
But Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager may be tempted to train her fire on European companies after a string of investigations of US global giants, especially after Tuesday's Apple verdict, has enraged the United States.
The order to the iPhone maker to pay back taxes to Ireland on the grounds that Dublin illegally favored Apple with a tax regime that amounted to a competition-distorting subsidy was the biggest of 38 decisions by Vestager since the Commission began probing some 1,000 companies in up to 23 European Union (EU) states in 2013.
Another US firm, coffee chain Starbucks, was ordered to repay up to 30 million euros to the Netherlands and a unit of Italy's Fiat must hand a similar sum to Luxembourg. In a separate case involving 35 firms in Belgium, many were not identified but some were also from the United States.
The Commission will not say when a decision is likely on two outstanding cases involving two more US firms, Amazon and McDonald's, both in Luxembourg.
Set alongside a series of high-profile antitrust probes into Google and Vestager has a case to answer on charges of anti-American activity — albeit one that she strenuously denies.
Nonetheless, people involved in competition law in Europe, many of whom declined to speak on the record for this story, reckon the Commission may choose a company closer to home for any major new enquiry.
"It is quite obvious that the Commission will not be able to investigate 1,000 tax rulings. It will only go after manifest violations," said Georg Berrisch, partner at law firm Baker Botts, who noted the fertile ground the Commission may have in evidence turned up in 2014 by leaked data from Luxembourg.
"It will have to pick and choose a few cases, maybe look into European companies. Luxleaks mentioned several European companies having tax deals with Luxembourg," Berrisch said.
Vestager, arguably the most powerful official in the EU due to her individual power to rule on competition cases across the 28-nation bloc, makes no secret of her reliance on others at times to provide the evidence that can justify her enquiries.
For all the fury in Washington over Apple, that and the other current cases were all launched on the back of revelations provided by a US Senate subcommittee enquiry into taxation. It is unclear how many companies may face... read full story
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