The European Commission will tomorrow hit Amazon with a bill for hundreds of millions of euros of back taxes in the latest example of the EU’s crackdown on tax avoidance by multinational companies.

The decision by the commission’s powerful antitrust department comes after it slapped Apple with a record €13 billion (£11.5 billion) bill for unpaid Irish taxes last year.

Amazon, a US online retailer whose European operations are headquartered in Luxembourg, was under investigation by the European Commission after allegations it benefitted from a decade-long sweetheart tax deal that amounted to illegal state support.

Margrete Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, will on Wednesday question a 2003 tax ruling that underpinned Amazon’s European business and allowed it to cut its true profit levels by paying intergroup royalties, The Financial Times reported. Luxembourg and Amazon have always denied any illegal activity.

The tax deal was one of a number exposed in the fall-out from the Luxleaks scandal in 2014 that embarrassed Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president and former prime minister of Luxembourg.

The move against Amazon will likely resurrect US claims that the EU bears a grudge against its successful tech giants. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, branded last year’s decision against Apple “total political cr-p”.