A French internet user has challenged a proposed tax on digital data by presenting MP Laurent Lhardit with a theoretical bill of €10,237.20. On X, Christophe Boutry said his counter had recorded more than 214 million downloads from the Socialist lawmaker’s personal website, adding that the total could be rounded up to €20,000 with a few more hours of activity.
The stunt was intended to turn the principle of the proposed tax against one of its supporters. The measure would charge content providers according to the volume of data they transmit to internet users in France. It was added to the 2027 finance bill after a vote in the National Assembly on October 30, 2026, passing by 11 votes to 10.
Under the proposal, internet service providers such as Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free would count the gigabytes sent to their subscribers and identify the companies responsible for that traffic. Those companies would then pay 5.5 euro cents per gigabyte transmitted. The measure is not yet in force and would still need to remain in the final version of the budget.
The proposal has already drawn criticism, including from Xavier Niel, who described its authors as “ignorant incompetents.” One concern is that platforms could pass the cost on to users through higher subscription prices.
Another user, posting under the name mizmo, demonstrated the same principle using a roughly 44 MB PDF about historian Marc Bloch hosted on the Socialist Party’s website. A small program downloaded and deleted the file repeatedly while tracking the theoretical cost. The latest screenshot showed 13,109 downloads, equivalent to about 576 GB and €31.70 in tax.
For that demonstration, mizmo used a copy of the PDF stored locally, so the Socialist Party’s website was not contacted for every download. The example nevertheless illustrates how repeated transfers could increase the amount owed by a content provider without generating additional revenue.
Boutry’s calculation contains a significant mistake. His interface uses a rate of “0.055 centime” per gigabyte, while the amendment specifies €0.055, or 5.5 euro cents. At the correct rate, the 18.6 million gigabytes shown by his counter would represent approximately €1.02 million before any cap, rather than €10,000.
That figure would not automatically make Laurent Lhardit personally liable. The text sets a limit of 15% of revenue generated in France or 2% of total revenue. It would also be necessary to establish which entity is considered the content provider for the lawmaker’s website.
The proposal does not explicitly exclude bots that repeatedly download files to increase a site’s bill. However, the rules for measuring traffic still have to be defined by decree. If such downloads were included, they could increase the tax due, subject to the proposed limits.
Sources: Numerama.