Belgium's $762 Million Tax Loophole Shut in EU Payback Order

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"In essence, the scheme allowed companies to pay substantially less tax, simply because they are multinational," Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition chief, told reporters in Brussels. "It distorts competition on the merits by putting smaller competitors who are not multinational on an unequal footing."

Tax deals including Apple Inc.'s arrangements with Ireland and Amazon.com Inc.'s agreements with Luxembourg are also under investigation by the EU, which last year ordered the Netherlands to recover as much as 30 million euros in back taxes from Starbucks Corp. The EU has said tax avoidance and evasion cost about 1 trillion euros a year.