France's lower house backs a €0.055 per gigabyte levy on large online services in first reading

France's National Assembly has approved in first reading an amendment under which large foreign digital services would pay €0.055 for every gigabyte delivered to users in France. According to one source, the vote passed by a narrow margin.

The measure would apply to Netflix, Google, Meta and Amazon; one report also mentions YouTube. Citing Le Figaro, it is clarified that the charge applies to data delivered to individuals. The authors of the amendment expect revenue of around €10 billion a year; another source puts it at almost $12 billion.

The decision is so far only an interim one: this is just the first reading, and the final fate of the measure is unclear. Video streaming generates a large volume of traffic, so the burden on such companies would be higher than on services with less traffic, which could put pressure on their margins in France.

One source points to the political context: Donald Trump has repeatedly promised in the past to respond to pressure on American technology companies.