EU court upholds Engie's 120 mln euro EU tax order

BRUSSELS, May 12 (Reuters) - Europe's second-highest court on Thursday upheld an EU order to French utility Engie to pay back taxes of 120 million euros ($145.7 million) to Luxembourg, part of an EU crackdown on tax deals which give some firms an unfair advantage.

"It cannot be disputed that the Engie group received preferential tax treatment owing to the non-application, in the contested tax rulings, of the provision relating to abuse of law," the Luxembourg-based General Court said.

The European Commission in its 2018 decision said the arrangement with Luxembourg authorities artificially reduced Engie's tax burden which meant it paid an effective corporate tax rate of 0.3 percent on certain profits in Luxembourg for about a decade.

The cases are T-525/18 Engie Global & T-516/18 Luxembourg v Commission.

($1 = 0.8237 euros) (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Marine Strauss;)