THE TELEGRAPH: France is planning a "Google tax" on internet search websites to raise money to plough into creative industries weakened by the digital revolution.
The proposal, outlined in a government-commissioned survey, has set the scene for a new Gallic run-in with Google – fast becoming the global internet behemoth the world loves to hate.
The levy on advertising revenue is the latest plank in France's drive to regulate the internet, which has seen it enact some of the world's toughest antipiracy legislation.
Besides Google, the tax would target other large operators in Europe such as Microsoft and Yahoo! whether or not their offices are in France. Google's European headquarters are in Ireland, but under the proposal, the operator would pay a levy every time a French internet user clicks on an advertising banner or sponsored link on its sites.
Guillaume Cerutti, one of the authors of the report said the tax would put an end to "enrichment without any limit or compensation".
Google – which this week extended its empire with the launch of Nexus One, its first mobile phone – has annual internet advertising revenues in France alone of £720 million, according to the report's authors. They want France's competition watchdog to investigate whether it is respecting monopoly rules on internet advertising.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly cast himself as a defender of France's cultural heritage from digital predators. Last month, he pledged £700 million to digitise France's national literary treasures and stop them falling into Google's hands. "We are not going to be stripped of our heritage for the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is," he said. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, January 07, 2010
