BRUSSELS—European Union regulators ordered France to recover
1.37 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in state funds from Electricite
de France SA after concluding the French electricity supplier had
benefited from illegal tax breaks.
The decision, which follows an annulment of a similar 2003
decision by the EU's top court, comes amid a broader crackdown by
Brussels on tax avoidance by major companies.
The European Commission, the bloc's top antitrust regulator,
said Wednesday that France had failed to levy all the corporation
tax due by EDF in 1997, when the company had reclassified some
accounting provisions as capital.
That tax break gave EDF "an undue economic advantage compared
with other operators on the market and so distorted competition,"
the commission said in a statement.
"In order to remedy the distortion, EDF must now repay that
aid," the commission said.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement that
"whether private or public, large or small, any undertaking
operating in the Single Market must pay its fair share of
corporation tax."
The commission polices the bloc's state aid rules, which
prohibit state support that favors some companies over others.
Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com
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