The European Commission has decided that 35 multinational corporations will be required to repay $765 million after they ruled that a tax break offered by Belgium was illegal.
In issuing the decision, the EC did not list the 35 companies, but hinted that it may do so later. And it went to great lengths to note that the majority of the companies who benefited from the scheme were based in Europe.
“Belgium has given a select number of multinationals substantial tax advantages that break EU state aid rules,” said Margrethe Vestager, EC commissioner in charge of competition policy, in a statement. “It distorts competition on the merits by putting smaller competitors who are not multinational on an unequal footing.”
