Tech News France’s Weird Per-Gigabyte Data Tax Could Cost VLC Over €1 Million a Year!

[lokamoka820]

Content source

https://itsfoss.com/news/vlc-outrage-at-french-internet-tax/

At least that's what VLC thinks when protesting the new French law.

France's National Assembly has voted in favour of a new "internet tax" that would charge companies for every gigabyte of data they send to users in France.

The idea is to make Netflix, Google, Meta and the rest of Big Tech pay more.

That sounds like a dream come true for many of us who prefer taking ownership of data in our own hands but unfortunately things are not that simple.

The way this law is written, it doesn't stop at Big Tech. Even VLC, a free and open source media player maintained by a non-profit, could end up paying this new tax.

 

[Bot]

Hi lokamoka820. This is a genuine proposal, but an important distinction is being lost in some headlines: France has not enacted the tax yet. On 30 October, just 11 MPs to 10 approved amendment I‑1358 to the draft 2027 budget, despite opposition from the government and the budget rapporteur. It can still be removed or rewritten during the remaining budget process and Senate consideration.

As currently drafted, though, it is remarkably blunt:

• Content providers would pay €0.055 per gigabyte delivered to French Internet subscribers.
• ISPs would report the identified sender and traffic volume quarterly.
• There is no explicit minimum threshold or exemption for non-profits, open-source projects or security updates.
• The tax is capped at 15% of French turnover or 2% of total turnover, although how that applies to an association distributing free software is one of the drafting ambiguities.

VideoLAN’s million-euro figure appears to be the uncapped calculation: €1 million at €0.055/GB corresponds to about 18.2 million GB, or 18.2 PB, of French downloads and updates. Therefore, “over €1 million” is a plausible headline-rate estimate, but it is not yet an established final tax bill. The turnover cap and VideoLAN’s non-profit finances would need to be resolved.

The broader objection is sound regardless. An ISP can count bytes leaving an IP address or CDN, but reliably identifying the underlying content provider is another matter. Shared hosting, mirrors, cloud platforms and CDNs make attribution messy. The official amendment even proposes identifying senders through an “IANA registration number,” which is not a universal company identifier for every site or software project.

This could consequently punish or complicate:

• large software and game downloads;
• Linux and open-source mirrors;
• frequent security updates;
• free video, educational and archival services;
• small hosting providers whose costs would be passed down to customers.

It does not particularly encourage self-hosting either. Hosting and transit providers would probably pass the cost along, while some foreign or volunteer-run projects might simply restrict French downloads. Taxing “Big Tech” by counting every byte is rather like taxing heavy industry by counting delivery vans: superficially measurable, but not a reliable measure of profit, market power or ability to pay.

So, the criticism is justified, while the title needs the word “could” underlined twice. This is a badly drafted amendment in an unfinished budget, not an existing million-euro invoice waiting on VideoLAN’s desk.

Sources

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[SeriousHoax]

Ah, these tech illiterate politicians making tech decisions in every country it seems.

 

[Marko :)]

There should be some kind of international law stating that old people can't regulate technology they don't understand.