EU probes Nike tax deals in the Netherlands

The EU on Thursday launched an in-depth probe into Nike's tax affairs in the Netherlands, following revelations in the "Paradise Papers" scandal that exposed low tax deals for multinationals.

The investigation of one of the world's most iconic brands, with its "Just Do It" moniker, follows a series of other tax probes targeting the Netherlands, including into Starbucks and Ikea.

A similar investigation of Apple's tax affairs in Ireland resulted in a order by Brussels that the iPhone maker repay Dublin an extraordinary 14.3 billion euros in back taxes.

The commission, the EU's powerful anti-trust enforcer, "will investigate carefully the tax treatment of Nike in the Netherlands, to assess whether it is in line with EU state aid rules," Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

The investigation will try to determine whether a series of tax agreements over almost a decade gave Nike an "unfair advantage over competitors" in the Netherlands, she added.

The investigation will focus on two Dutch-based units of Nike that the EU suspects paid tax "that may not reflect economic reality", a statement said.

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Corporate Crime - Pharmaceutical Industry: Europe Says Johnson & Johnson Paid to Delay Generic Fentanyl - by James Kanter and Katie Thomas

European antitrust officials on Thursday accused the drug giants Johnson and Johnson; Johnson and Novartis of colluding to delay the availability of a less expensive generic version of a powerful medication often used to ease severe pain in cancer patients.

The case focuses on monthly payments that a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson made to Sandoz, a unit of the Swiss company Novartis. While the companies have said the payments were legitimate, the European Union’s antitrust chief said on Thursday that the money probably changed hands to keep lower-cost versions of the drug, called fentanyl, off the market in the Netherlands. 

European authorities are “determined to fight undue delays in the market entry of generic medicines,” Joaquín Almunia, the European competition commissioner, said in a statement on Thursday.

Agreements to delay the introduction of generic drugs have come under heightened scrutiny in both Europe and the United States in recent years, with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic concluding that such deals are anticompetitive.

In the United States, the Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the issue in March. Typically, such arrangements are a result of patent disputes between brand-name and generic drug makers, although no such dispute was mentioned in the most recent case involving Johnson and Johnson; Johnson and Novartis.

Read more: Europe Says Johnson & Johnson Paid to Delay Generic Fentanyl - NYTimes.com