Paris (AFP)

Google this week warned advertisers that it intended to increase by 2% from May the price of advertisements broadcast on its platform in France and Spain to offset the cost of the so-called "Gafa" tax applied in France since 2019 and since this year in Spain.

This increase should "cover part of the costs related to compliance with tax legislation on digital services in France and Spain," Google explained to advertisers in an email consulted by AFP, confirming information from Le Monde.

France adopted in July 2019 a tax of 3% on the turnover achieved in France by the digital giants exceeding 750 million euros of global activity.

In Spain, the government definitively approved at the beginning of October the creation of a 3% tax on the income generated by certain activities of these companies.

"We regret this decision, which will reduce the ability of brands to invest at a time when all companies are going through an unprecedented crisis", reacted to AFP the director general of the Union of brands Jean-Luc Chetrit .

"Taxes on digital services complicate efforts to achieve a balanced deal that works for all countries. (...) We encourage these governments to reverse what are essentially tariffs, or at least suspend them. as long as the negotiations continue, "Karan Bhatia, head of public policies at Google, pleaded at the end of February.

Before Google, the internet search giant which dominates the internet advertising market with Facebook, the e-commerce leader Amazon had implemented in October 2019 a 3% increase in the prices applied to French sellers on its platform.

Apple followed suit in September 2020, by increasing the commissions levied on developers who sell applications on its platform, in France but also in Italy and the United Kingdom.

Facebook told AFP that it had not planned at this stage to apply an additional cost to French and Spanish advertisers, and that it hoped the outcome of international discussions of new tax rules.

By adopting a Gafa tax in 2019, France had positioned itself as a pioneer country in the taxation of "Gafa" (acronym designating Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) whose taxes are often unrelated to the amount of their taxes. benefits and who were the big winners in 2020 from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This "Gafa" tax brought in around 400 million euros in 2019 in France and was levied again in 2020, despite threats of reprisals from the Trump administration, which had also frustrated negotiations within the framework of the OECD to reform the international taxation of these companies.

But the election of US President Joe Biden in January changed the game and the OECD is now counting on an agreement on the taxation of multinationals at the G20 Finance on July 9 and 10.

© 2021 AFP