Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) has settled a long-running dispute with French tax authorities for an undisclosed amount.
The French government had demanded nearly €200mln from the e-commerce giant in undeclared taxes and penalties for earnings between 2006 and 2010.
“We have reached an overall settlement agreement with the French authorities on past questions,” an Amazon France spokeswoman said in an email to Reuters.
Amazon has been criticised for lowering its tax bill in European countries by funnelling sales through Luxembourg, which has relaxed tax laws.
The company, which first acknowledged in 2012 that the French government was seeking back taxes, said it had set up a branch in the nation in 2015 and had now booked profits and retail sales in the country.
France has called on the European Union to introduce new rules to tax online companies based on their revenues instead of only their profits.
READ: Uproar as Amazon’s UK tax bill more than halved in 2016
Amazon is not the only tech giant to book profits in low-tax countries.
Google books most of its international advertising revenue in Ireland where taxes are low.
The search engine, owned by Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), moved €15.9bn through low-tax European countries into a Bermuda shell company last year, according to regulatory filings in the Netherlands.
READ: Google slashes tax bill by moving €16bn into Bermuda shell company
Last July, the French government lost a court case against Google demanding back taxes. The court ruled that Google was not liable to pay €1.1bn in taxes as it did not have sufficient taxable presence in France.