Internet giant Google now fears a new tax which could be imposed by the French Government on online advertising revenue, in order to help struggling artists.
French minister of culture Jacque Toubon has been described as saying there is a trend of “enrichment without end and without consideration”. The tax would not affect just Google, but AOIL, Microsoft and Yahoo among others.
But unsurprisingly, Google has opposed the tax.
“We don’t think introducing an additional tax on internet advertising is the right way forward as it could slow down innovation,” said a Google spokesperson told Information Week.
“The better way to support content creation is to find new business models that help consumers find great content and rewards artists and publishers for their work. Google already supports content creation through partnerships with many French publishers and content creators. In fact, around the world, we distributed more than 4.2 billion Euros last year to our partners, helping to fund great content creation.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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