The Commission's investigation focused on the settlement reached between Belgian tax authorities and Umicore SA whereby a demand to pay VAT of approximately €20 million was reduced to €10 million under the final settlement arrangement. The Commision established after a protracted period of investigation that the reduction in the final tax bill was due to taxation principles particular to the facts of the transactions under review and was not simply an agreement to give a fiscal benefit to Umicore, and did not therefore constitute state aid.

Full details of the Commission's investigation and conclusion are available at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/616&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en