# French lawmakers approve a tax of 5.5 euro cents per gigabyte on content providers

- URL: https://syn.by/en/state/finance/french-lawmakers-approve-tax-per-gigabyte/
- Published: 2026-10-31T18:00:21+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-31T18:00:21+00:00
- Section: Finance
- Language: en
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/gosudarstvo/finansy-ru/frantsuzskiye-dyeputaty-odobrili-nalog-5-5-yevrotsyenta-za.md
- BE edition: https://syn.by/dziarzhava/finansy/francuzskija-deputaty-adobryli-padatak-5-5-euracenta.md

> The amendment to the 2027 budget passed by 11 votes to 10. The French government opposed the initiative.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-5873-1024x585.webp)

Deputies of France's National Assembly have approved an amendment to the draft 2027 budget that introduces a tax on companies that distribute content over the internet. The rate is 5.5 euro cents for every gigabyte of data delivered to users in France.

According to the amendment's authors, France's annual internet traffic is about 200 billion gigabytes.

The initiative's authors expect the tax to bring the state about €10 billion a year. This is their estimate, not a confirmed result.

The amendment, proposed by Socialist deputy Laurent Lardit, passed by the narrowest of margins: 11 people voted in favour, 10 against, and another 14 abstained. In total, 35 of the National Assembly's 577 deputies took part in the vote. It was a vote on a separate amendment during budget deliberations, which do not require a majority of parliamentarians to be present. The government opposed the initiative.

According to the amendment's supporters, roughly half of the traffic comes from just five companies: Netflix, Google, Meta, Amazon and Akamai.

The Socialists expect the new tax to increase the contribution of the largest technology corporations to the state budget.

The supporters' second argument is environmental. In their view, having to pay for every gigabyte delivered will push companies towards technologies that reduce the volume of transmitted data without degrading service quality. This, they believe, should ease the load on data centres, cut their energy consumption and shrink the environmental footprint of the digital industry.