--- title: France's per-gigabyte data tax passed by one vote description: France's National Assembly passed a per-gigabyte data tax amendment by a single vote, 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions. The rate is €0.055 per GB, and its... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-per-gigabyte-data-tax-passed-by-one-vote-cyoaxnc4z twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: France's per-gigabyte data tax passed by one vote | daily.dev og:description: France's National Assembly passed a per-gigabyte data tax amendment by a single vote, 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions. The rate is €0.055 per GB, and its... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-per-gigabyte-data-tax-passed-by-one-vote-cyoaxnc4z og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cyOaxNC4Z.png og:image:alt: France's per-gigabyte data tax passed by one vote og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # France's per-gigabyte data tax passed by one vote **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary France's National Assembly passed a per-gigabyte data tax amendment by a single vote, 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions. The rate is €0.055 per GB, and its Socialist authors estimate it would raise €10bn a year. An Arcep estimate cited in the amendment says 200bn gigabytes reach French subscribers yearly, with Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai accounting for about half. Game developer @SebAaltonen calculated a 150GB AAA download would carry 8.25€ in extra tax, and a 60GB patch 3.3€ each time. VideoLAN says the tax would cost the project more than €1m a year. The government and finance committee opposed it, and the Senate is unlikely to pass it. ## Content France's National Assembly just passed an amendment taxing companies €0.055 for every gigabyte sent to French internet subscribers. It squeaked through 11 votes to 10, with 14 abstentions, as part of the 2027 budget. Its Socialist authors expect it to raise €10bn a year, citing an Arcep estimate of 200bn GB of annual traffic, about half of it from Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai. The loudest objection comes from VideoLAN, the non-profit behind VLC. It says the tax could cost it over €1 million a year, and it didn't hold back: the legislators "just voted a tax, that they don't understand," and are "probably the most clueless politician on Earth? And they claim they want technological sovereignty…" The text has no explicit non-profit exemption. ## The author says VLC is covered Laurent Lhardit, the amendment's author, says the cap protects VideoLAN. The tax tops out at 15% of French revenue or 2% of total revenue, though the text doesn't say which applies when they differ. VideoLAN's reply is that he doesn't understand the difference between revenue and profit. ## Big infrastructure money is unamused OVHcloud's Octave Klaba put his company's gross exposure at around €70 million a year. Free's Xavier Niel called the bill's authors "ignares incompétents", roughly "incompetent ignoramuses". ## Gamers did the math @SebAaltonen ran the numbers on Steam: a 150GB AAA download is "8.25€ extra tax," and a 60GB patch adds 3.3€ each time. "Extra taxes might double the game price for several years of updates," he warned, adding it will make game developers' lives "even worse." His workaround is half joke, half protest: buy the game, don't install it, torrent the same install instead. That "saves 5-10€ tax per game. Not even illegal, since you own the license." @Jonathan_Blow went for the price tag: "FIVE CENTS PER GIGABYTE. Lollercoaster." The actual cost of moving a gigabyte in the US, he says, is about 1/100 of that. ## Don't panic yet The government and the finance committee both opposed the measure. The Senate, controlled by Les Républicains, is unlikely to back it. A one-vote win in a thin chamber is a long way from law. But it shows how easily a poorly specified tax can pass when the people voting don't seem to know who pays it. ## Questions this post answers ### What is the rate of France's proposed per-gigabyte data tax? The proposed rate is €0.055 per gigabyte of data sent to users in France. The amendment passed the National Assembly 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions, and its Socialist authors estimate it would raise €10bn a year. The tax is capped at 15% of French revenue or 2% of global revenue for affected companies. _Developers tracking regulatory risk to distribution costs can follow policy shifts like this on daily.dev._ ### How much extra would a per-gigabyte data tax add to downloading a 150GB video game? A 150GB AAA game download would carry about 8.25 euros in extra tax under France's proposed €0.055 per gigabyte rate, according to a calculation by game developer Sebastian Aaltonen. A 60GB patch would add roughly 3.3 euros each time it's downloaded, potentially doubling game prices over several years of updates. _Game developers weighing distribution costs can keep tabs on tax proposals like this via daily.dev._ ### Why is VideoLAN opposed to France's proposed data tax? VideoLAN, maker of VLC, says the tax would cost the project more than €1 million a year, despite VLC being free open-source software rather than a Big Tech service. VideoLAN called the lawmakers behind it clueless given their stated goal of technological sovereignty, arguing the tax can't distinguish a Netflix stream from a free media player. _Open-source maintainers watching how regulation could hit free software can follow stories like this on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 123 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-11-02). **TL;DR:** Developers largely agree the proposed 0.055€/GB French data tax is poorly conceived and would be devastating for streaming, downloads, and free software like VLC, while a separate thread of comments debates French/European fiscal politics and left-vs-right blame more broadly. **Sentiment:** 5% positive · 25% mixed · 70% skeptical **The pushback** - The tax applies broadly to all internet traffic, not just video, making services like game downloads, cloud storage, and software updates similarly unprofitable. - It's unclear how the tax would even be enforced for P2P, torrents, or mirrors, with many basic implementation questions left unanswered. - Some argue VideoLAN, as a nonprofit association, may not actually be liable since French associations can't generate profit. - The tax could push streaming/software companies to degrade quality (e.g. capping resolution) or exit the French market entirely. **By community** - hackernews (heated): Strong agreement that the tax itself is poorly designed and harmful to digital services, but the thread splinters into a heated, tangential argument about left vs. right governance, debt, and billionaire taxation in France and the US. **Hottest debate:** Whether France's fiscal problems and the law's failure stem from ideological (left vs right) governance patterns or are simply universal political incompetence/corruption. **Open questions** - How would the tax handle user-to-user traffic, P2P, or torrent distribution? - Would nonprofit associations like VideoLAN actually be exempt given they can't generate profit in France? - How will ISPs practically track and attribute every GB's origin to enforce the tax? **Highlights** > https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/amendements/3210A/... This is the current one. I haven't done french since high school. So totally chatgpt and google translate reading this to me, but I really don't get what VideoLAN has to do with this. The law is crazy with a €55/TB tax on ingress to France (including local cdns). But it's got nothing to do with your video player. > A tax is established based on the flows of digital data emitted by content providers and paid by the latter > When a data emitter uses a content delivery network to cache content near end users, the amount of data emitted is considered equal to the sum of the outgoing flows from the delivery network Imagine paying €8 to download Balder's gate 3 lol. > — [kingstnap on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310074) > This is the most hilarious thing I have ever read. Part of me wants this law to go into effect and watch an entry country send itself back to 1988 to try and compy with it. Quick ChatGPT summary of I‑1358: - It's a tax on internet "content", but they haven't defined what that means exactly, so by default it would apply to all internet traffic. - Bytes delivered to French users by ISPs are taxed (but not user uploads). - ISPs are in charge of tracking exactly where every GB originates from and will have to report the names to the government. - The "content provider" then has to pay 0.055 EUR per GB that they sent. - No explanation for how user-to-user traffic is handled. No explanation for what ISP -> user means (e.g. does P2P count)? About a million other similar questions are unanswered. - The amendment was adopted today, and the assembly will vote on it as part of their full budget. > — [paxy on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310279) > Paying 0.055 EUR per GB of traffic sent to French residents makes video streaming fundamentally unprofitable. > — [Scaevolus on hackernews · 3 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50309381) > Not just video streaming. Think of game downloads, software updates, video calls, cloud storage, backups. A GTA 6 download is estimated to be 210 GB. Under this law the publisher or storefront will have to pay an extra 11.5 EUR per copy in tax. And not just for a sale, but for every download. > — [paxy on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310204) > This law is crazy. The "French socialists" are really disconnected to any reality, they don't even exists as a political force currently. To be fair, it's limited to what a "business" make as money. So it should exclude associations (which are not allowed to make money in France). But yes, it's really a stupid law. > — [\_ache\_ on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310339) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308631) · 73 points · 123 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [California will tax downloaded software for the first time as part of a $351.7 billion budget deal](https://daily.dev/posts/california-will-tax-downloaded-software-for-the-first-time-as-part-of-a-351-7-billion-budget-deal-xjchvmmut) · The Next Web · 2 upvotes · 1 comments - [France says Google fines should cut what EU countries pay into the budget](https://daily.dev/posts/france-says-google-fines-should-cut-what-eu-countries-pay-into-the-budget-pogebukss) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UKIE calls on government to modernise Video Games Expenditure Credit ahead of Autumn Budget](https://daily.dev/posts/ukie-calls-on-government-to-modernise-video-games-expenditure-credit-ahead-of-autumn-budget-4lrvrnkqx) · GamesIndustry.biz · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#steam](https://daily.dev/tags/steam), [#regulation](https://daily.dev/tags/regulation) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-per-gigabyte-data-tax-passed-by-one-vote-cyoaxnc4z) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"France's per-gigabyte data tax passed by one vote","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-per-gigabyte-data-tax-passed-by-one-vote-cyoaxnc4z","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-per-gigabyte-data-tax-passed-by-one-vote-cyoaxnc4z"},"datePublished":"2026-11-01T12:06:53.637Z","dateModified":"2026-11-02T09:05:05.640Z","description":"France's National Assembly passed a per-gigabyte data tax amendment by a single vote, 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions. The rate is €0.055 per GB, and its...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/06d2021eb75e0a266d398645514c5bec?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/06d2021eb75e0a266d398645514c5bec?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-per-gigabyte-data-tax-passed-by-one-vote-cyoaxnc4z","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,steam,regulation","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"France's per-gigabyte data tax passed by one vote"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/france-s-per-gigabyte-data-tax-passed-by-one-vote-cyoaxnc4z#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the rate of France's proposed per-gigabyte data tax?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The proposed rate is €0.055 per gigabyte of data sent to users in France. The amendment passed the National Assembly 11 to 10 with 14 abstentions, and its Socialist authors estimate it would raise €10bn a year. The tax is capped at 15% of French revenue or 2% of global revenue for affected companies. Developers tracking regulatory risk to distribution costs can follow policy shifts like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How much extra would a per-gigabyte data tax add to downloading a 150GB video game?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A 150GB AAA game download would carry about 8.25 euros in extra tax under France's proposed €0.055 per gigabyte rate, according to a calculation by game developer Sebastian Aaltonen. A 60GB patch would add roughly 3.3 euros each time it's downloaded, potentially doubling game prices over several years of updates. Game developers weighing distribution costs can keep tabs on tax proposals like this via daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is VideoLAN opposed to France's proposed data tax?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"VideoLAN, maker of VLC, says the tax would cost the project more than €1 million a year, despite VLC being free open-source software rather than a Big Tech service. VideoLAN called the lawmakers behind it clueless given their stated goal of technological sovereignty, arguing the tax can't distinguish a Netflix stream from a free media player. Open-source maintainers watching how regulation could hit free software can follow stories like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```