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Google's Paris offices have been raided as part of an ongoing investigation into tax fraud.
Police and tax officials are said to have arrived at the tech giant's offices at around 5am UTC, according to reports in French newspaper Le Parisien.
Google confirmed the raids had happened and added that its operations were lawful.
"We comply with French law and are cooperating fully with the authorities to answer their questions," a spokesperson for Google told WIRED.
A source told Le Parisien "the operation was extremely secretive" adding: "It has even been led without using the tax authority's messaging service to avoid leaks".
Around one hundred tax officials are believed to have searched the company's headquarters in Paris' 4th arrondissement, with police officers and five magistrates from the French justice authority also said to be on the scene.
Bercy, France's ministry of finance, has already demanded Google pay €1.6 billion (£1.2bn) in taxes after accusations the company has shifted money across borders to avoid paying back taxes.
Google's tax dealings have been investigated across Europe. Italy has demanded Google pay around €200 million (£150m) in back taxes, and the company has been criticised for its tax deals within the UK.
In February this year, the company was accused of making a "disproportionately small" tax deal with the UK by a group of MPs.
In a statement from the Public Accounts Committee, the group accused Google's desire for tax transparency of being "at odds with the complex operational structure it has created which appears to be directed at minimising its tax liabilities."
"The sum paid by Google seems disproportionately small when compared with the size of Google’s business in the UK, reinforcing our concerns that the rules governing where corporation tax is paid by multinational companies do not produce a fair outcome," the group wrote.
Google paid £130m in back taxes to HMRC in January after a six-year investigation into its taxes. £46.2m of this payment was a tax on its 18 months of profits to June 2015, with the rest of the figure covering historic taxes it had also failed to pay.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
