Amazon is shrugging off an order to pay $294 million in back taxes to the EU (AMZN)

Jeff Bezos

Amazon's stock seems to be shrugging off an order to pay a €250 million ($294 million) back tax payment. Shares of Amazon are up 0.58% at $962.80 after the news.

The order stems from Amazon's business organization in Europe which funneled most of the company's European profits through a holding company in Luxembourg that had more favorable tax laws.

Amazon's practice is not necessarily illegal in the EU. The company used a practice called "transfer pricing" which allows separate units of a single company to charge each other for goods or services. The problem lies in the rate at which the separate units of Amazon were taxed, which was found to be illegal, and led to the favorable tax arrangement Amazon had been operating under since 2003. Amazon moved most of its profits into a business unit that was not taxed as heavily as other areas of the company.

The European Commission has not been shy about taking on the biggest of the US's tech giants. Google was recently served with a $2.7 billion fine for its shopping search practices, which were found to be unfairly favoring Google's own services. Apple, like Amazon, was also ordered to pay back taxes last year, to the tune of $14.5 billion.

Amazon has said it is considering an appeal. Intel, which was served an anticompetition fine similar to Google, recently won its appeal and its case is to be retried.

Amazon shares are up 27.87% this year.