France wants to tax every gigabyte transferred

Every gigabyte of data sent by online platforms to French users could become subject to a new tax. On October 30, the French National Assembly supported, by a narrow majority of 11 votes to 10, an amendment to the 2027 budget law that provides for the introduction of a tax on internet traffic.

The proposal establishes a levy of 5.5 cents for each gigabyte transferred. It would not be paid by users or internet service providers, but by companies that provide online content and services. Among the biggest payers would be Google, Meta, Amazon and Netflix. That is how French officials envision the law, but the fact is that such a tax would sooner or later burden consumers. We should not delude ourselves that companies will take on this burden entirely.

The amount of data transferred would be monitored by internet operators, who would provide the tax administration with aggregated data on the traffic of individual providers every quarter. The proposal does not allow for insight into the content of communications.

The proposer, Laurent Lhardit, estimates that the state could raise around €10 billion annually. The tax liability would be limited to a maximum of €15 billion of a company's revenue in France, or €2 billion of its total revenue.

The French government opposes the proposal, warning of the potential consequences for smaller businesses and domestic digital services. There is also a risk that providers would pass on some of the new costs to subscribers.

The non-profit organization VideoLAN, developer of the free VLC player, also points out the problems, saying that taxing software downloads could be a significant burden on it.

The tax has not yet been finally adopted. The amendment must undergo further legislative procedure, during which MPs can amend or remove it.