French lawmakers back a per-gigabyte tax on online content, not yet law

The vote

On Friday, 30 October, deputies in the French National Assembly backed an amendment to the 2027 budget that would charge content providers for every gigabyte of data they send to users in France. The amendment was tabled by Socialist deputies and passed 11 votes to 10, with 14 abstentions. Its authors put the charge at €0.055 per gigabyte and estimate it could bring the state €10 billion a year. El Confidencial described the measure as the first time a national parliament has chosen to tax traffic volume rather than the revenue that traffic produces. Attendance was thin: naTemat reported that 35 of the 577 deputies were present, and El Confidencial described the session as nearly empty.

For11

Against10

Abstentions14

For

11 votes

Against

10 votes

Abstentions

14 votes

Data from the article text

Who would pay

Under the text, the levy would fall on the companies that supply online content rather than on the people who watch or download it. Internet providers would measure how much traffic each company sends to French subscribers and report those totals to the tax authorities every quarter. Data delivered through content delivery networks, which keep copies close to users, would be counted as it leaves those networks. The authors cite an Arcep estimate of about 200 billion gigabytes reaching French subscribers each year, and say Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai account for around half of it. The total charge would be capped at 15% of a company's French revenue or 2% of its worldwide revenue. naTemat reported that the charge would also cover app updates and games, not only video streaming.

Government and critics

The government and the finance committee both opposed the amendment. Public accounts minister David Amiel said that about half of the estimated €10 billion, roughly €5 billion, would come from smaller content providers, including French firms. He added that collecting the charge would require sensors on the networks or measurement on users' own devices. Philippe Juvin, the finance committee's general rapporteur, warned that large platforms could pass the cost on to advertisers. Laurent Lhardit, the Socialist deputy who authored the amendment, disputed the estimate and pointed to the revenue cap as a limit on the burden. VideoLAN, the French nonprofit behind the VLC media player, said the charge would cost it more than €1 million a year, and noted that VLC has passed 6 billion downloads.

What happens next

The measure has cleared only one stage. It must still survive the remaining budget process, including the Senate, before it could become law. Until then, the charge is a proposal under debate rather than a rule companies must follow. The amendment is part of the public finance debate for 2027, so its fate will be decided alongside the rest of that budget, and the government's opposition leaves its outcome open.