Amazon’s Rapid Rise Put Online Giant on EU’s Tax Hit List
- Official who led Apple case says EU targets unfair competition
- Regulators are prioritizing only most problematic tax deals
An employee stacks items to be shipped at the Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Amazon.com Inc. is in the European Union’s cross hairs because its rapid expansion may have been fueled by tax measures that slashed its costs, according to the EU official spearheading a state-aid probe into the online giant.
Gert-Jan Koopman, whose department at the European Commission was responsible for slapping Apple Inc. with a 13 billion-euro ($15.6 billion) tax repayment order last year, told a Brussels conference that the EU is targeting methods that are a menace to fair competition.