The European Commission launched individual in-depth probes into the so-called excess profit tax rulings granted by the Belgian government to 39 multinational companies to assess whether these benefits violated the bloc's state aid rules.
The move comes after the bloc's General Court earlier this year quashed the Commission's January 2016 decision deeming Belgium's tax scheme illegal and ordering the country to recover €700 million from dozens of companies.
In a Sept. 16 statement, the Commission said separate probes are now warranted because it had failed to establish the existence of an aid scheme, as concluded by the General Court in February.
"We are concerned that the Belgian "excess profit" tax system granted substantial tax reductions only to certain multinational companies that would not be available to companies in a comparable situation," said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
The Commission said Belgium's provisions resulted in 50% to 90% of the involved companies' accounting profit being exempt from taxation.
The companies include Anheuser-Busch InBev, as well as subsidiaries of Atlas Copco AB, British American Tobacco PLC and Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
The Commission first opened an investigation into Belgium's corporate tax provision in 2015.
