The National Assembly voted 11-10, with only 35 of 577 deputies present, to approve an amendment by Socialist deputy Laurent Lhardit taxing content providers 5.5 cents per gigabyte sent to French internet users. ISPs would track data flows and bill senders, with charges capped at 15% of French revenue or 2% of global revenue; supporters project €10 billion in annual revenue, drawing on regulator Arcep's estimate that five companies—Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai—generate about half of the 200 billion gigabytes delivered yearly.
techspot.com
· 2026-11-02
French lawmakers voted 11-10 on October 30 to add a per-gigabyte internet traffic tax to the country's upcoming budget. The measure, proposed by socialist lawmaker Laurent Lhardit, would charge €0.055 per gigabyte delivered to France's roughly 154 million internet users, targeting companies like Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon and Akamai rather than their ad revenue or profits. ISPs such as Orange and Liad would measure data volumes and report quarterly to tax authorities under regulator Arcep's oversight.
tech.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-31
France's National Assembly voted 11-10 on October 30 to approve a tax amendment charging content providers €0.055 (about $0.06) per gigabyte of data sent to French users, rather than taxing ad revenue or profits. Proposed by lawmaker Laurent Lhardit, the measure is projected to raise roughly €10 billion ($11.2 billion) annually and names Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon and Akamai as likely major payers, with ISPs tasked to measure and report data volumes to tax authorities each quarter.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-31
Lawmakers voted 11 to 10 to adopt amendment I-1358 to the finance bill, proposed by the Socialist group, creating a levy of 0.055 euros per gigabyte on data delivered to French users. Internet providers would measure quarterly traffic volumes per company, overseen by regulator Arcep and the tax administration, with charges capped at 15% of French revenue or 2% of global revenue. The tax targets content providers and CDNs rather than consumers directly, and sponsors say it could raise up to 10 billion euros.
lesnumeriques.com
· 2026-10-30
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