Starbucks to appeal EU tax decision, cites "errors"

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) said it would appeal a decision by the European Commission on Wednesday which found it benefited from unfair state aid in the Netherlands and ordered it to pay additional taxes there.

"Starbucks shares the concerns expressed by the Netherlands government that there are significant errors in the decision, and we plan to appeal since we followed the Dutch and OECD rules available to anyone," a spokesman for the U.S. coffee shop chain said in a statement.

"Starbucks complies with all OECD rules, guidelines and laws and supports its tax reform process. Starbucks has paid an average global effective tax rate of roughly 33 percent, well above the 18.5 percent average rate paid by other large U.S. companies."

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)