On 30 October 2026, France’s National Assembly adopted, at first reading, an amendment to the 2027 budget: content providers would pay 5.5 cents for every gigabyte they deliver to users in France. The vote ended 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions – in an almost empty chamber, with only around 35 of the 577 deputies present. Both the government and the rapporteur opposed it, and a similar draft had already failed in the finance committee. It is still far from being law.
How the levy would work
The amendment (Amendement I-1358) comes from Socialist deputy Laurent Lhardit, who calls it a “tax on producers of digital data”. The senders of data traffic – streaming services, platforms, cloud providers and content delivery networks – would pay, not end customers or internet providers. Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free would record volumes per sender anonymously and report them quarterly to the tax authority; the regulator Arcep would oversee the process.
The charge is capped at 15 percent of French revenue or 2 percent of global revenue – based on revenue, not profit. With an estimated 200 billion gigabytes per year, the initiators expect around 10 billion euros, with roughly half of the traffic coming from Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai. 100 gigabytes would cost 5.50 euros, a large game of 210 gigabytes about 11.55 euros. The text does not prohibit passing the costs on to customers.
Further readings are pending, the Senate is seen as critical, and constitutional or EU-law objections are possible.
Why the design is problematic
Whether tech giants are taxed fairly in Europe is a legitimate question. But better profit taxation, levies on advertising revenue or international agreements would make more sense than a flat charge per gigabyte, which in effect works like a consumption tax on internet use.
Bottom line: Another levy that users will mainly end up paying, without properly solving tax avoidance – more symbolic politics than well-thought-out fiscal policy.
