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France isn’t exactly known as being the friendliest country for big businesses, especially when it comes to tech companies.
Now the country is contemplating a new set of taxes on companies like Apple and Google to fund cultural projects, reports Reuters.
What’s the reason for the new “culture tax”? Apparently, France is looking for ways to fund its cultural projects despite its economy being in the dumps. The country thinks that such projects should be shielded from funding cuts across the board due to an economic downturn.
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The news comes weeks after French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg told Yahoo he didn’t want an American company to buy the “French Internet success story” that is Dailymotion (for which the French government is a partial owner of). France has also fined Google over a breach of privacy due to its maps product and also tried to force the company to pay royalties to local news publications for featuring links to their websites within Google News. These things all paint France as a place that’s anti-big business, and this new tax certainly won’t help.
The report indicates that French president Francois Hollande will make a decision on the new set of culture taxes by July.
French flag image via Shutterstock
