French lawmakers have voted through a controversial new levy that would charge €0.055 for every gigabyte of internet traffic. The proposal was approved during the first sitting of Friday, 30 October 2026, as part of the National Assembly's ordinary session for 2026 to 2027. Under the plan, the charge would apply to data traffic, making the volume of bytes transferred the basis for taxation rather than flat subscription fees.
The decision puts France at the centre of a growing debate over who should pay for the physical networks that carry digital content. Supporters argue that heavy traffic generators, from streaming platforms to cloud providers, should contribute more directly to the cost of maintaining and expanding infrastructure. Critics counter that a per-gigabyte charge could raise prices for ordinary households and discourage the use of data-intensive services.
The rate of €0.055 per gigabyte is small on paper, but it scales quickly. A household consuming hundreds of gigabytes in a month would face a noticeable addition to its bills, and large platforms moving petabytes of content would see substantial new costs. How the tax would be collected and who would ultimately bear it remain central questions for industry observers.
The measure now moves into a wider legislative and public debate, with telecom operators, technology companies and consumer groups all expected to weigh in. If it survives further scrutiny, France would become one of the first countries to tax internet traffic by volume at a national level, a precedent that other governments may study closely.