The French National Assembly approved a fee of 5.5 cents per euro for each gigabyte transmitted by companies
The French Executive expressed its rejection of the initiative before the vote. The Minister of Action and Public Accounts, David Amiel, questioned both the technical viability of the mechanism and its possible economic consequences. One of the Government's main arguments is that the tax could also reach smaller content providers
The French National Assembly approved on Friday, October 30, an amendment to the draft budget for 2027, which establishes a tax of 0.055 euros for each gigabyte of data sent to French users. The proposal, promoted by the socialist deputy Laurent Lhardit, mainly targets large providers of digital content
.The mechanism states that the companies responsible for transmitting the data must pay the fee. Internet providers will have to measure the volumes sent by each company and transmit consolidated and anonymized information to tax authorities, under the supervision of the telecommunications regulatory body and the tax administration
.
The approval came in a particularly tight vote. Of the 577 members of the National Assembly, only 35 participated in the procedure: 11 voted in favor and 10 against, while the remaining did not cast
a vote.The sponsors of the amendment estimate that the tax could generate around 10 billion euros per year for the public coffers. However, this figure constitutes a projection of the authors of the proposal and not a guaranteed collection
During the parliamentary debate, Amiel estimated that approximately half of the projected tax burden could end up affecting smaller companies.
Although the tax is formally aimed at companies and not consumers, there is the possibility that some platforms may transfer part of the costs to their users through price increases, modifications to their services
or new business conditions.This could affect subscriptions to streaming platforms and other digital services, as well as video game downloads, cloud storage and content distribution.
In this way, an initiative approved by just one vote of difference opened a debate on Internet taxation in France and on who would end up bearing the cost of a new burden on digital traffic.
