Parisian police have raided Google’s (GOOG) offices in the French capital, reportedly as part of an investigation into the company’s alleged tax evasion.
France is trying to get €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) in back taxes out of the company. As elsewhere in Europe, the authorities think Google owes a lot of money for having funnelled proceeds through its Irish subsidiary.
According to Le Parisien, the raid took place early this morning, with around 100 investigators taking part.
Get Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s technology newsletter.
“We comply with the tax law in France as in every other country in which we operate,” Google said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with the authorities in Paris to answer their questions, as always.”
The tax affair is not the only worry for Google in France at the moment. The French competition authority on Monday launched an inquiry into the exploitation of Internet users’ data in the online ad industry, in which Google is one of the major players, and the firm is also in a legal fight with the French privacy watchdog, CNIL, over its application of the so-called right to be forgotten.
For more on Google, watch our video.
Italy also wants $335 million in back taxes from Google, and is investigating the firm’s managers in the country.
In the U.K. Google got away with a back-tax payment of around $190 million that a parliamentary committee criticized as being “disproportionately small.” The European Commission, which is currently probing into the tax arrangements of Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN), may still look into that deal as well if someone makes a formal complaint.
In April, the Commission warned multinationals that they need to pay tax where they make their profits, and cut down on their aggressive avoidance schemes.
This article was updated to include Google’s statement when the company issued it.