Dutch court orders British American Tobacco to pay $117 million fine, back taxes

By Toby Sterling and Emma Rumney

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A court in the Netherlands on Friday ordered British American Tobacco to pay a fine of 107 million euros ($117 million), and said it had under-declared profit by 1.8 billion euros during the 2013-2016 period and will owe tax on that.

The numbers were included in a Dutch North Holland District Court ruling that redacted the name of the organization it applied to, but BAT later confirmed it was the company in question, calling the decision "disappointing".

"By far the largest part of the fines were imposed for an intentionally untrue tax claim for the transfer of company activities to the United Kingdom," the court said in a summary of its judgment.

BAT said it was considering an appeal.

"BAT complies with all applicable tax legislation across all of our operating markets," the company said.

The ruling marks the latest legal charge for BAT this year, after it agreed to pay $635 million to U.S. authorities in April.

A subsidiary of the company pleaded guilty to charges that it conspired to violate U.S. sanctions by selling tobacco products to North Korea and commit bank fraud in 2013-2017.

($1 = 0.9170 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Jan Harvey and Tomasz Janowski)