EU regulator orders Électricité de France to repay €1.37bn in tax

Électricité de France was ordered to repay €1.37bn to French authorities as the EU’s competition regulator clamps down on corporate tax loopholes.

The regulator is seeking to throw the spotlight onto multinationals’ tax affairs. It’s already probing fiscal arrangements of Apple in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands, and Amazon. com and a Fiat unit in Luxembourg.

The order to claw back the aid is the latest chapter in the EDF case, which was re-opened two years ago after the EU’s top court faulted the commission’s handling of the probe. EDF got an unfair advantage from a 1997 tax exemption amounting to about €889m plus €488m in interest, the commission said. While it will reimburse the sums, EDF “denies the existence of unlawful state aid” and is weighing an appeal.