France Internet Tax Would Make Netflix and Google Pay per GB

French lawmakers have voted for a France internet tax that would charge content providers such as Netflix, Google, Meta and Amazon €0.055 (about $0.06) for every gigabyte of data they deliver to French internet subscribers. The amendment to the 2027 budget passed the National Assembly on October 30 by 11 votes to 10, with 14 abstentions, and its Socialist authors say it could raise €10 billion (roughly $11.2 billion) a year.

The measure is far from law. The government and the budget’s general rapporteur both opposed it, and it still has to survive the rest of the budget process and the Senate.

How the France Internet Tax Would Work

Under amendment I-1358, tabled by Socialist deputy Laurent Lhardit, internet service providers would measure how much data each sender pushes to their customers, under the supervision of telecom regulator Arcep and the tax authority, and report the totals every quarter. Only volumes would be counted, not the content or destination of the traffic.

The company that sends the data pays, not the subscriber or the network operator. Traffic served from content delivery networks (CDNs) inside ISP networks also counts. The bill is capped at 15% of a company’s revenue in France or 2% of its worldwide revenue, a limit aimed at data-heavy businesses like streaming and gaming.

Who Would Pay the Most

The authors cite Arcep figures showing about 200 billion gigabytes flowing to French subscribers each year, with Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai accounting for roughly half. At the proposed rate, a 100 GB ultra high definition film would cost the streaming platform €5.50. Lhardit argued that free services such as Instagram and TikTok would struggle to pass the cost on to users.

France already has a 3% digital services tax on advertising and marketplace revenue, which brings in less than €1 billion a year. Supporters say traffic, unlike profits, is a tax base that platforms cannot shift abroad.

Why It May Not Survive

Budget minister David Amiel questioned whether the traffic can be measured reliably and said about half of the projected revenue would actually come from smaller providers, many of them French. Only 35 of 577 deputies took part in the early morning vote, and the National Rally group abstained, according to NosParlementaires.

The amendment only sticks if the Assembly adopts the budget’s full revenue section, with the first reading due by November 17. The government can also force a second vote or use Article 49.3 to pick which amendments stay.

A levy aimed largely at American companies would also likely draw attention in Washington, which has already pushed back on European moves against US tech firms, as with the Section 301 probe over Google’s EU fine.

Brussels has been tough on Big Tech too, including a $1 billion antitrust fine against Google this summer.

For the platforms, a per-gigabyte charge would land as they pour record sums into infrastructure, as our look at Big Tech AI spending shows.