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The European Union is investigating allegations that fast food giant McDonald's received a sweet tax deal from Luxembourg, at a time when the bloc is trying to crack down on preferential treatment for multinationals.

EU antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Thursday that the Luxembourg deal may have breached state aid rules, which seek to keep a level playing field for businesses across the 28 member states.

The EU says that since 2009, McDonald's Europe Franchising paid no corporate tax in Luxembourg despite large profits. It said the profits were more than 250 million euros ($265 million) in 2013.

Vestager said that "a tax ruling that agrees to McDonald's paying no tax on their European royalties either in Luxembourg or in the U.S. has to be looked at very carefully."

The EU said Luxembourg gave McDonald's "an advantage not available to other companies in a comparable factual and legal situation."

Multinationals in Europe pay taxes in the country where they have their regional headquarters, and countries have long competed to lure the big companies.

A portion of the ECB's Thursday release on the McDonald's probe is below: 

"The Commission has opened a formal probe into Luxembourg's tax treatment of McDonald's.Its preliminary view is that a tax ruling granted by Luxembourg may have granted McDonald's an advantageous tax treatment in breach of EU State aid rules

In October, the EU already demanded that Starbucks and Fiat repay up to 30 million euros ($34 million) each in back taxes, in what was the start of a broad crackdown on favorable tax deals for multinationals.