EU braced for legal challenges over tax probes

The European Union’s new anti-trust chief said the EU is braced for a legal battle with governments embroiled in its probe of sweetheart tax deals for multinationals from Apple to Amazon.

Margrethe Vestager said the process needs to be legally watertight as officials investigate whether deals handed out to companies by Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands were a form of illegal state subsidy.

Governments would like to challenge the EU and “of course the casework has to be very very thorough”, she said yesterday.