France Votes for a 5.5-Cent Tax on Every Gigabyte of Data

French lawmakers have approved an unprecedented budget amendment that would tax internet traffic directly. Under the text, senders of data would pay 5.5 euro cents for every gigabyte transmitted. The measure is meant to make large digital companies share more of their profits with the state, but experts and the French government itself are already warning that the cost could land on ordinary users and smaller firms. The sums involved reach 10 billion euros a year.

Who would pay, and how it would be counted

Traffic volumes would not come from the platforms' own statistics. Instead, French internet providers and telecom operators, including SFR, Bouygues Télécom, Free and Orange, would report the data to the government. That setup could push video-on-demand services or game stores to nudge customers toward VPNs.

The lawmakers cited figures from the regulator Arcep showing that just five companies generate 50 percent of all internet traffic in France: Netflix, Google, Meta, Amazon and Akamai. The Assemblée nationale wants to draw billions of euros from precisely these firms.

Echoes of the 2019 digital tax

Critics point to 2019, when France introduced a 3 percent digital tax and the tech giants simply raised the commissions charged to their business partners. The fear is that a per-gigabyte levy would follow the same path, leading to higher prices for streaming and game downloads.

Far from final

The amendment had previously been rejected by government representatives and the finance committee, but it passed unexpectedly on Friday, 30 October, in a nearly empty chamber. The government may demand a new vote with full attendance once members return from the weekend. The bill must also go to the Senate, which is dominated by the right.