A levy of three percent tax on large internet companies upon their revenue generated in France could yield 500 million euros ($568.3 million) every year, said Bruno Le Maire, Finance Minister of France on Sunday.
Talking to a French daily newspaper La Parisien, French minister told that the tax will be aiming at companies having digital revenue of at least 750 million euros worldwide with more than 25 million euros of revenue generated in France.
And on that criteria out of 30 companies targeted, mostly will be American but will also include companies from Germany, Spain, Britain and China as well as one local firm and several other firms of initially French origin but now been acquired by foreign companies.
The newspaper listed the Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google as the target companies but also included Airbnb, Uber, Booking and a French online adbertising firm Criteo to that list.
Data is a valuable thing today and the tax system for the 21 century has to be built upon that, La Maire said.
The tax is also meant to be for a fiscal justice as small-and-medium sized European companies pay some 14 percentage points more tax than the larger digital companies are paying and fair taxes are the main demand of yellow vest protest France has been seeing for the past three months, La Maire added.
The tax would be target those companies which have been earning commission for being a contact point between businesses and customers, but will not target the companies which are selling their own products on their websites, like Dart, a French retailer which sells washing machines and TVs through its own website, La Maire said.
Companies making money by working as digital intermediary between seller and buyer have to pay taxes which will also be applicable to sale of personal data to advertising companies.
Prior to presenting the law in parliament, a draft of its will be presented to cabinet on Wednesday, La Maire said.
