Germany eyes 10% digital tax on tech giants

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The German government is drawing up plans for a 10 per cent tax on global internet giants like Meta and Google in a controversial move that could further fuel transatlantic trade tensions.

Germany’s federal commissioner for media and culture, Wolfram Weimer, told Stern magazine on Thursday that the new government is drafting a digital levy on global internet platforms, although alternatives like a voluntary commitment by the affected tech companies to pay more tax in Germany are also still under consideration.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centre-left coalition agreed to “evaluate” a tax on internet platforms in its treaty signed in early May, agreeing that the proceeds should be used to strengthen the country’s media landscape.

“We are serious about this,” the former editor of Axel Springer-owned title Die Welt, said in the interview. Weimer added that he had invited “the leadership of Google as well as key industry representatives” to hold discussions over alternatives to a tax, “including possible voluntary commitments.”

A German tax on Google, Meta and other US internet giants could put further strain on transatlantic trade relations at a time when US President Donald Trump is accusing the EU of treating American companies unfairly and wants to impose tariffs as a response.

But Weimer was unfazed by such a prospect, pointing out that the new German government has started the legal groundwork to establish a tax. He said that the duty could focus on the German advertising revenue of digital platforms like Google and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and may amount to 10 per cent.

“We are preparing a concrete draft law,” said Weimer, adding that it “could” be based on Austria’s model, which he praised as a “simple and effective tax of five per cent on online advertising services for very large platform operators”. Weimer stressed that the actual tax rate could be higher in Germany, pointing out that twice that rate was considered “moderate and legitimate” by the German government.

Several other EU countries, including France, already have taxes on digital companies.

Facebook and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

German media organisations, including the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers, praised Weimer’s initiative, telling German newswire DPA that they welcomed that internet giants would be “held accountable”.

The organisation and another lobby group, the Media Association of the Free Press, urged Merz’s government to redistribute the proceeds from any tax to media organisations with editorial teams, stressing that their own business models have come under dramatic pressure from global tech platforms.

Weimer told Stern that a tax should be applied to all tech platforms that generate “billions of revenue” in Germany and use editorial and cultural content created by others.

Austria’s experience had shown that such a levy on ad revenue did not trigger “significant price changes” but “has resulted in the corporations finally making a small tax contribution to society, meaning their enormous profit margins have slightly decreased”, Weimer added.