Overview
- Lawmakers in the National Assembly voted narrowly to include the amendment in the next budget, but the measure is not law and must pass further committee work and full parliamentary approval.
- The proposal sets a flat levy of €0.55 for every gigabyte of content delivered to French users and shifts taxation from ad revenue and profits to data traffic volume.
- Explanatory notes name major platforms and networks such as Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon and Akamai as likely payers and say other services like TikTok could fall under the rules depending on how scope is defined.
- Authors of the amendment estimate roughly €10 billion in annual revenue, while government ministers and the finance committee rapporteur have objected and signaled battles over legality, fairness and cost allocation.
- Key technical questions remain about how to measure and attribute gigabytes, who counts as the payer, whether costs would be passed to consumers, and the legal risks that could follow during the next stages of scrutiny.