The offices of the US streaming giant Netflix in France and the Netherlands have been raided as part of a preliminary investigation into tax fraud, Reuters reported , citing a source in a French court.
According to the French newspaper Marianne, the searches were carried out on Tuesday morning at the company’s offices in the centre of Paris by investigators specialising in financial crime and corruption. The investigation, which is being conducted by the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), was initiated in November 2022 and concerns serious economic and financial crimes, often involving large international companies.
Simultaneously with the actions in Paris, the Dutch authorities raided Netflix’s European headquarters in Amsterdam. Netflix representatives in France have not yet commented on media inquiries, and the Dutch prosecutor’s office has refused to comment on the situation.
“The cooperation between the French and Dutch authorities has been going on for several months in this case,” the court source said. At the same time, it should be emphasised that a preliminary investigation does not automatically lead to criminal charges.
The reasons for the investigation remain unknown. However, according to the news website La Lettre, the French subsidiary of Netflix was subject to a tax audit due to low turnover, which did not correspond to the number of paid users in the country. In particular, between 2019 and 2020, Netflix France paid less than a million euros in corporate tax using a registered office in the Netherlands, but the company stopped this practice in 2021.
It is worth noting that in 2022, Netflix agreed to settle a tax dispute with Italy by paying €55.8 million. The company opened its Paris office in 2020, employing about 40 people, and since then it has been actively producing original films and TV series, including the popular Emily in Paris project.
The PNF is currently refusing to provide details of the investigation, but such actions against large tech companies offering their services abroad are often caused by difficulties with European tax authorities.
