In a statement, the bloc said that Inter IKEA -- one of the two groups operating the IKEA business -- may have been allowed to “pay less tax” and given “an unfair advantage” via two Dutch tax rulings in 2006 and 2001.

“All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax,” Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy said.

“Member states cannot let selected companies pay less tax by allowing them to artificially shift their profits elsewhere. We will now carefully investigate the Netherlands’ tax treatment of Inter Ikea,” she added.

The Netherlands-based IKEA was founded in 1943 in Sweden and provides services in more than 40 countries.

Last year, the Commission confirmed that Ireland's tax benefits to Apple broke EU state aid rules, as the country let the tech giant pay considerably less tax than other companies.