Panorama of the National Assembly by Richard Ying et Tangui Morlier is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
France’s National Assembly has advanced a proposal to tax the data technology companies deliver to French internet users, adding another cost to doing business in Europe. This new tax will likely raise prices for European consumers and is also a direct attack on American companies.
On October 30, lawmakers voted 11-10 for Socialist deputy Laurent Lhardit’s amendment to the 2027 budget. It would charge content providers €0.055 per gigabyte, with internet providers reporting traffic to tax authorities. Its sponsors estimate roughly €10 billion in annual tax revenue and explicitly target Google, Meta, Amazon, and Netflix.
Although aimed at major platforms, unlike the French Digital Services Tax, this proposal contains no minimum company-size threshold. Its broad language could also reach American software developers and cloud providers serving France, potentially taxing even the delivery of free software updates. Liability would be capped at 15% of French revenue or 2% of worldwide revenue, leaving room for a substantial additional increase.
The tax would add to France’s existing 3% digital services tax on certain advertising and online marketplace revenues. In 2019, the U.S. Trade Representative concluded that the French DST discriminated against American companies. Separately, the EU’s Digital Markets Act imposes additional obligations on designated platforms, most of which are American. The gigabyte tax would extend this growing tax and regulatory burden to the delivery of data itself.
American businesses already have evidence that these costs reach beyond Big Tech. Google adds a surcharge to ads shown in France to help cover its digital services tax costs, regardless of where the advertiser is based. An American small business reaching French customers will therefore already pay more because of socialist French tax policy. A new data tax will create another cost providers will likely pass along to business customers and subscribers.
The amendment is not law yet and even faces government opposition as the budget process continues. The Trump administration must press France to drop this discriminatory tax before it becomes another barrier to trade and weakens the transatlantic relationship.