BRUSSELS, Sept 20 (Reuters) - European Union's second-top court on Wednesday backed an EU competition regulator's decision against a 700-million-euro ($748 million) Belgian tax scheme for 55 multinationals, in a major win for EU antitrust chief's crackdown on sweetheart tax deals.
The Luxembourg-based General Court had in 2019 annulled Margrethe Vestager's decision after Belgium and about 30 of the companies challenged it.
Beneficiaries of the Belgian scheme that dated from 2005 included U.S. manufacturer Magnetrol, oil company BP (BP.L), chemical producer BASF (BASFn.DE), Wabco, Cellio, Atlas Copco (ATCOa.ST) and Belgacom, now Proximus (PROX.BR) .
The EU Court of Justice, Europe's top court, in 2021 however sided with the EU competition enforcer and referred the case back to the lower tribunal.
Belgium can still appeal to the EU Court of Justice.
Persons:
Margrethe Vestager's, Atlas, Europe's, Foo Yun Chee, Bart Meijer, Tomasz Janowski
Organizations:
Belgian, EU, BP, BASF, Justice, Belgian Finance Ministry, Thomson
Locations:
BRUSSELS, EU, Luxembourg, Belgium, Brussels, Amsterdam