France Backs €0.055-Per-GB Internet Tax in 11-10 Vote, Targeting Big Tech

Q: If France taxes internet traffic instead of profits, could a law aimed at tech giants also hit projects like VLC and other smaller services?

Yes. As drafted, France’s proposed gigabyte tax could hit smaller services and even nonprofit or open-source projects, not just the biggest tech groups. The key reason is that the levy is based on data volume sent to users in France, not on profits, market power, or even whether a service makes much money. If a platform, software project, game distributor, or CDN delivers large amounts of data, it could fall within scope. The amendment names Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai as major targets, but the tax text is broader than that. That is why critics say the measure is a blunt instrument. VideoLAN, the French nonprofit behind VLC, has already warned the tax could cost it more than €1 million a year. Game platforms and software distributors could also face large bills because downloads, updates and re-downloads all generate traffic even when they do not produce new revenue. The proposal does include a cap of 15% of French revenue or 2% of global revenue, intended to prevent extreme burdens. But that may not fully protect low-margin, ad-free, or nonprofit services, and some legal and practical details remain unclear, including how the cap would apply where French revenue is limited. Government opponents have made the same point: while the political target is large foreign tech firms, a significant share of the tax burden could land on smaller providers, including French ones. The measure is also not law yet and could still be amended or removed during the budget process.

3 articles · Updated · Tom's Hardware · Oct 31

An 11-10 National Assembly vote added a proposed €0.055-per-gigabyte levy on data sent to French users to France’s next budget, putting Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon and possibly TikTok in scope.
Lawmakers backing the measure say it could raise about €10 billion a year by taxing digital data flows rather than ad revenue or profits, with roughly 200 billion GB moving through French networks annually.
Internet providers would have to measure traffic, identify the originating companies and report the data quarterly to tax authorities under Arcep oversight; the levy would be capped at 15% of French revenue or 2% of global revenue.
Government opponents and the finance committee rapporteur warned the plan could require intrusive monitoring and create privacy and business risks, though its sponsor argued the burden would fall mainly on global platforms driving most traffic.
The amendment is only an early step in France’s 2027 budget process, with further parliamentary scrutiny ahead before it could become law.