CCIA Troubled by Possible Trump 'Capitulation' to France

Following a bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 Summit in France Monday, the latter said the two countries were close to a "compromise" on the French digital services tax, according to the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which was not happy with that signal.

France last month imposed a 3% services tax on digital revenues of companies that earned over 25 million euros in French revenue and over 750 million euros worldwide.

The Trump Administration had said the President would raise the issue of the tax, which is levied on companies that do business in France, not just ones based there, and was adopted after a similar European Union-wide tax Macron backed did not gain sufficient support from the other EU members.

The Administration opposes the tax.

CCIA is afraid the President will give away too much in the "compromise."

“France’s unilateral digital tax action aimed at leading American companies is unjustified, and if tolerated, will encourage other countries to follow their example," said CCIA president Ed Black. "While we have many questions and await more details, it currently appears that this ‘agreement’ would be more capitulation than compromise."

“We should not support a compromise that would green-light discriminatory taxes against U.S. tech companies for some vague promise of possible partial reimbursement years later.” 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.