Searches were carried out at Netflix’s offices in Paris and Amsterdam on Tuesday. The streaming platform is suspected of tax fraud and undeclared work, a judicial source confirmed to the French news agency AFP.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) in Paris opened an investigation into Netflix’s activities in Europe two years ago. The financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021 were examined. Tuesday’s house searches are related to this, French sources confirm.
The French investigators have been working with their Dutch colleagues for several months, under the coordination of Eurojust. In Amsterdam, where Netflix’s European headquarters are located, French magistrates were also present during the search.
Netflix has not yet responded on Tuesday. The company previously said it complies with the tax rules of every country in which it operates. French research site La Lettre reported that Netflix declared a large part of its French turnover in the Netherlands, which meant it had to pay less taxes. This practice lasted until 2021, after which French turnover would have increased overnight from 47 million euros to 1.2 billion.
Netflix started offering streaming services in France more than ten years ago. The company has more than ten million subscribers, 282 million worldwide.