France Wants to Charge Big Tech €0.055 for Every Gigabyte

November 1 — France has approved a proposed tax aimed at charging for every gigabyte of internet data sent to French users, with major companies such as Google, Netflix, TikTok and Meta currently in its sights.

According to minutes published by the French National Assembly, on 30 October lawmakers backed the motion by 11 votes to 10 — meaning that, despite strong opposition from the government and the finance committee’s rapporteur, the new law has been folded into the country’s next budget.

Under the latest amendment, proposed by MP Laurent Lhardit, content providers may have to pay the French government €0.055 (about 0.41 yuan) for every gigabyte distributed.

Lhardit says France has about 154 million internet users, a number still growing, and that the tax could raise about €10 billion (about 74.4 billion yuan) a year. The proposal still faces further parliamentary scrutiny; it aims to tax companies that generate large volumes of internet traffic rather than their advertising revenue, profits or subscriptions. Its explanatory note names Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon and the content delivery network Akamai as the main potential contributors.

About 200 billion GB of data crosses French internet service providers each year, and the amendment says around five major companies account for half of that traffic. Lhardit argues the tax mainly hits global tech companies, since they generate most of the traffic flowing to French users. He also rejects the idea that the tax will end up being paid by users: “Some people keep insisting the tax will be passed on to consumers. Yet I cannot understand how you would pass a tax on to the users of Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, given that these services are free.”