On January 11 2016, the European Commission (the Commission) again used Tax State Aid arguments to combat tax planning by multinationals when it announced its final decision in the formal state aid investigation into the Belgian ‘excess profit’ rulings. It concluded that the excess profit rulings constitute illegal state aid and estimated that Belgium needs to recover around €700 million in total from at least 35 multinationals. Belgium can appeal this decision.

The Commission concluded that the rulings only benefit multinational groups whilst Belgian companies only active in Belgium could not claim similar benefits. The rulings, therefore, represented a distortion of competition within the EU's Single Market.