GoogleInc. CEO Sundar Pichai defended the company's tax practices inEurope, amid a number of probes the Alphabet Inc. unit is facing within the EU, AFP reportedJuly 17, citing Welt am Sonntag.

Pichai reportedly said Google is pitted "between theconflicting priorities of international tax law," adding that most globalfirms pay the majority of their taxes in their home countries.

The U.K.'s recent decision to leave the EU will alsoreportedly pose further challenges to the company, since Google is banking on adigital single market for the continent.

Earlier in July, Spanish policesearched Google'sMadrid offices following a tax investigation, just barely months after asimilar raid on thecompany's Paris hub in France.  

The European Commission also recently a new antitrust charge againstGoogle, for allegedly locking out rivals from its online search advertisingplatform AdSense for Search.