Gigabyte Tax Approved: Xavier Niel Attacks the Deputies

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Gigabyte Tax Approved: Xavier Niel Attacks the Deputies.

On October 30, the French National Assembly adopted amendment I-1358 by Socialist deputy Laurent Lhardit. It provides for a tax of EUR 0.055 per gigabyte. The result was extremely close: 11 deputies voted in favor and 10 against. The National Assembly therefore adopted the amendment against the position of the government and the budget rapporteur.

The initial draft focuses on digital data transmitted to French internet users. Companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix and Akamai are expected to supply most of this data. According to Numerama, they account for half the volume of data circulating in France.

Xavier Niel responded the following day, Saturday, October 31, to a question from an X user. The founder of Free and Iliad wrote in four French words: “Ce sont des ignares incompétents.” This translates as: “They are ignorant incompetents.”

“They are ignorant incompetents.”

The 5.5 cents will initially hit data services

Who will pay the levy

Neither internet users nor network operators are taxed directly under the adopted amendment. The levy is to be borne by companies that send digital data to French internet users. Internet providers—including Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free—would instead have to measure the volume of data they transport and report it to the tax authorities.

This means technical implementation will not concern only the major platforms. Free, as an internet provider, would also be responsible for measuring and reporting data. Scaleway would be affected even more directly: The hosting provider belongs to the Iliad group and sends data directly to internet users.

The political aim is to target providers with especially high data volumes. The authors of the amendment expect revenue of up to EUR 10 billion per year. The text caps the burden on a company at 15 percent of revenue generated in France or 2 percent of worldwide revenue.

OVH puts the bill at EUR 23 million to EUR 70 million

A concrete calculation for one company

OVH CEO Octave Klaba published a calculation for OVHcloud on X. According to the company, it sends around 500 Gbit/s at peak times to French internet providers, with an average of about 324 Gbit/s. At a tax rate of EUR 0.055 per gigabyte, this would amount to a gross bill of EUR 70 million per year.

Taking the stated revenue caps into account, Klaba estimated that the amount actually collected would be roughly EUR 23 million to EUR 70 million annually. According to his account, these costs would ultimately have to be borne by customers. This gives the OVH CEO a concrete scale for the concern at the center of the debate.

The practical consequence is not automatic

A simple calculation makes the potential burden understandable. One hour of Netflix in 4K can use up to 7 gigabytes. At EUR 0.055 per gigabyte, that would represent roughly 40 cents in tax. A game with 200 gigabytes would cost its distributor EUR 11.

Whether your internet bill actually rises depends on who absorbs the levy. Platforms can pay the costs from their margins, raise their prices or pass on part of the amount. The adopted levy does not formally apply directly to you. In practice, however, it could be passed on to customers, and that is precisely the strongest point of criticism made by opponents.

Reactions came from several directions

Niel was not the only critical voice

Already on October 30, the day of the vote, the VideoLAN association, which develops the VLC player, described the participating deputies as “probably the most ignorant politicians on Earth.” VideoLAN put its own annual burden at more than EUR 1 million. In a further message, it said the deputies understood nothing except how to create new taxes.

Frandroid also cited Wikipedia and Linux as free services that would be affected by the levy. The reactions therefore went beyond major platforms to include projects whose business model does not rely on paid data transfers.

According to Numerama, Niel’s own post on X was viewed more than 250,000 times within a few hours. Responding to another comment saying the deputies could do little more than take money out of French people’s pockets, he conveyed the idea that they knew nothing except how to create new taxes.

The tax does not yet exist

Not yet a final law

The National Assembly has adopted an amendment to the 2027 budget law. The central political decision has therefore been made, but the levy is not yet legally in force. The document can still be changed or deleted during the further budget process—for example, during deliberations with the Senate or through a budget enacted by the government without a parliamentary vote.

The political path was not straightforward either. The amendment was rejected by the finance committee in early October before the National Assembly adopted it on October 30 by a single vote. Frandroid also raises the question of how the tax could be circumvented in the practical measurement of data: Via a proxy or VPN, consumers could attribute their data consumption to an intermediary provider. Cloudflare and GitHub would then be the ones affected.

For now, Xavier Niel’s statement therefore remains a political attack on the creators of the levy. The concrete consequences for your bill depend on the final version, billing by internet providers and whether companies pass the tax on to their customers.