France Votes a Tax on Every Gigabyte
France's lower house has voted, 11 to 10, for a charge of 5.5 euro cents on each gigabyte that Netflix, Google, Meta and other content companies send to French internet users. Who would end up paying is the open question.
The Palais Bourbon, seat of France's National Assembly, in Paris, May 2022.Illustration by The Good Times, based on a photo by Michael Gaylard / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
France's National Assembly has written into its draft 2027 budget a tax on internet traffic itself: 0.055 euros for every gigabyte a content company sends to subscribers in France. Internet providers such as Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free would count the data reaching their customers and report who sent it, and the sender would pay. The charge is capped at 15% of a company's French revenue or 2% of its worldwide revenue. The Socialist sponsor, Laurent Lhardit, expects 10 billion euros a year and cites the telecom regulator Arcep's figure that five companies, Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai, send about half of French traffic. Budget minister David Amiel said half of that, 5 billion euros, would fall not on the big digital companies but on smaller content providers, French ones among them. The vote was 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions; 35 of 574 deputies voted, and the government and the budget's general rapporteur opposed it. It is not law, and the Senate can strike it. A 100-gigabyte download would carry 5.50 euros of tax, a 200-gigabyte one 11 euros. Whether that cost stays with the companies or reaches the people downloading is not settled.
France's lower house has backed a tax of 5.5 euro cents on every gigabyte content companies send to French internet users, a measure its Socialist sponsors say would raise 10 billion euros a year but which still has to get past the Senate.
What the deputies voted
During debate on France's 2027 budget, the National Assembly adopted amendment I-1358, which creates a "tax on producers of digital data." Internet providers would measure, under the supervision of Arcep and the tax authorities, the volume of data each sender delivers to their subscribers, without looking at its content or destination. The sender owes 0.055 euros per gigabyte, up to 15% of its revenue in France or 2% of its total revenue. Traffic delivered through content delivery networks such as Akamai is counted too.
The finance committee had rejected the same measure on October 9. The Socialist group filed it again for the floor, where it passed 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions. Thirty-five of the Assembly's 574 deputies took part. The government and the general rapporteur, Philippe Juvin, had asked the chamber to reject it.
The sponsors' numbers
Arcep estimates that about 200 billion gigabytes a year reach French internet subscribers. At 5.5 cents, that is about 11 billion euros before the caps; the sponsors put the yield at 10 billion a year. Their case is that global platforms sell into France without declaring much profit there, while the volume of data they send to French homes is a base that cannot be moved abroad. They also say a per-gigabyte charge would push senders to compress their files.
The objections on the floor
Two objections were raised in the chamber. Juvin, the rapporteur, said the largest platforms have the market power to pass the tax on to their advertisers. Amiel, the minister for public accounts, questioned whether the traffic could be measured without flow sensors or measurement on individual receiving devices, and said half of the sponsors' expected yield, 5 billion euros, would fall on smaller content providers, including French ones, rather than on the big digital companies.
What the arithmetic touches
The rate turns any download into a tax amount. A 100-gigabyte file carries 5.50 euros; a 200-gigabyte game download carries 11 euros, before the caps. The caps limit the charge on services that send large volumes of data for each euro they earn. The tax is owed by the sender, not by the subscriber or the internet provider.
A company charged per gigabyte can absorb the cost, send fewer gigabytes or raise its prices. The rapporteur's objection points to advertisers; a subscription service earns its money from households instead. All five companies named in Arcep's figures are American, and no response from Washington has been reported.
The open question
The sponsors, the rapporteur and the minister disagree about whom the tax would reach. None of them has settled the question the measure leaves open: if a company is billed for every gigabyte it delivers, does that bill stay with the company, or does it reach the person who pressed play?