France's new 'internet tax', which was meant to stop tech giants from sending huge amounts of data to your smartphone, has been killed off

On October 30, French deputies voted 11 to 10 in favor of introducing a tax of €0.055 ($0.06) for every gigabyte of data sent to French internet subscribers. The measure was intended to generate around €10 billion annually in revenue for the French government, although the government disputed the figure and the feasibility of measuring data traffic accurately.

Five days later, the National Assembly rejected the entire 2027 budget, which included the revenue section, effectively killing the tax. The vote to kill the revenue section was unanimous, with 458 out of 577 deputies voting against it. Despite initial support from Socialist deputy Laurent Lhardit and backing from some industry players, the tax faced opposition from the government, telecom regulators, and major content providers.

The proposal was criticized as being technically and administratively burdensome and against the trend of voluntary cooperation between tech companies and telecom operators. The tax proposal may resurface in a different form or be reintroduced by the Socialists in their 2027 election program, but its chances for implementation appear slim at this point.