Netflix Europe offices raided in tax fraud probe

Offices of streaming giant Netflix in Paris and Amsterdam have been raided by the French and Dutch authorities as part of an investigation into tax fraud, French judicial sources say.

Officials from the two countries have been co-operating on the case since the investigation was opened in November 2022.

Netflix has not as yet made any specific comment on the raids, but insists it complies with tax laws wherever it operates.

The Amsterdam office is the headquarters of the company's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The French investigation is being carried out by the National Financial Prosecutor's office (PNF), a special unit used for investigations into high-profile white-collar crime.

It relates to suspicions of "covering up serious tax fraud and off-the-books work", according to the PNF.

The company is also under investigation for tax filings for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The French sources said authorities in the Netherlands were conducting simultaneous searches, and that co-operation between the two countries had been going on for "many months".

Last year, French media outlet La Lettre reported that until 2021, Netflix in France minimised its tax payments by declaring its turnover generated in France to the Netherlands.

After it abandoned this arrangement, La Lettre said, its annual declared turnover in France jumped from €47.1m ($51.3m; £39.6m) in 2020 to €1.2bn in 2021.

However, the outlet says investigators are trying to determine whether Netflix continued to attempt to minimise its profits after 2021.

Netflix arrived in France more than 10 years ago, opening its Paris office in 2020. It has some 10 million subscribers in the country, according to AFP news agency.