The European Commission has opened an investigation into Netherlands’ tax treatment of IKEA due to concerns that Dutch tax rulings may have given one of its group companies an unfair advantage over other companies.

This investigation comes as the latest in a number of investigations by the Commission on rulings by the tax authorities of various member states purporting to grant a tax advantage to a company. The Commission began investigating individual tax rulings of member states under EU state aid rules in June 2013 and extended this to all member states in December 2014. In October 2015, the Commission concluded that Luxembourg and the Netherlands had granted selective tax advantages to Fiat and Starbucks respectively. In January 2016, the Commission concluded that selective tax advantages were granted by Belgium to at least 35 multinationals. In August 2016, the Commission concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to €13 billion to Apple which is disputed by the Irish Government. In October 2017, the Commission concluded that Luxembourg granted undue tax benefits of up to €250 million to Amazon.