Taxing digital platforms to fund the media

5.12.2022

Priority question for written answer  P-003937/2022
to the Commission
Rule 138
Geoffroy Didier (PPE)

Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the Commission for Values and Transparency, recently stated in the press[1] that she ‘dreams’ of taxing digital platforms to fund the media. Specifically, she expressed her desire ‘to get the money back from Google and others because they are getting most of the money from advertisers, which is then missing for the media sector’.

In the light of the ongoing work on the Media Freedom Act, these statements give rise to the following questions:

• 1.Has the Commission assessed the decline in media advertising revenues? If so, what conclusions were reached?
• 2.Are online intermediary services the only platforms concerned, or are VOD and similar platforms also concerned? Are we talking about the media defined in the scope of the forthcoming legislation on media freedom, those covered by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS Directive) or just the press?
• 3.How would this tax be reconciled with Article 13(2) of the AVMS Directive, which provides for the possibility for Member States to introduce either an investment obligation for VOD platforms or a tax on those platforms to finance film agencies?

Submitted: 5.12.2022

• [1] https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/franco-german-reset-tax-the-oligarchs-death-on-the-nile/