OVHcloud founder Octave Klaba says France’s proposed tax on data sent to internet users could leave the cloud company with an annual charge of 23 million to 70 million euros. His calculation applies the proposed rate to French traffic and different revenue ceilings. The budget measure is still proceeding through parliament.
OVHcloud, the French cloud-computing provider, faces a possible annual charge of 23 million to 70 million euros under France’s proposed gigabyte tax, according to founder and chief executive Octave Klaba. He published his estimate on 31 October, a day after lawmakers adopted the budget amendment. The measure remains in the parliamentary process and has yet to enter into force.[1], [2]
The proposal charges 5.5 euro cents for each gigabyte sent by content providers. Klaba used average traffic of 324 gigabits per second to French subscribers, producing a gross annual estimate of about 70 million euros. The group’s worldwide revenue of 1.145 billion euros puts a 2 per cent ceiling at roughly 23 million euros. He said the alternative ceiling, 15 per cent of French revenue, would leave the gross charge unreduced.[1]
Klaba said the company would have to pass the charge to its customers. No implemented price increase accompanied the announcement. He also argued that the proposed ceiling uses revenue earned from servers, storage, data centres and staff as well as bandwidth. The amendment leaves technical implementation to a decree and gives internet access providers a role in measuring the data sent.[1]
