Telecoms: France, Italy and Spain want to make GAFA pay for networks

France, Italy and Spain are stepping up pressure on the European Commission to prepare draft regulations guaranteeing that the GAFAs contribute to the financing of telecoms infrastructures within the Community bloc.

This is the first time that three governments of the European Union have expressed their common opinion on this file, while European regulators indicated last May that they were considering the possibility of asking Google, Meta (Facebook) and Netflix to bear part of the development costs of telecom networks.

In a joint document, consulted by Reuters, France, Italy and Spain point out that the six main digital content providers represent 55% of Internet traffic. “This leads to specific costs for European telecom operators in terms of capacity, in a period during which they are already investing heavily in the most expensive parts of the 5G and fiber networks”is it written.

The three countries urge the EU executive to propose a bill “ensuring that all market players contribute to the costs of digital infrastructure”is added in the document.

Two Italian government officials confirmed the details of the joint document. No comment could be immediately obtained from the French and Spanish governments.

According to a study published earlier this year by an industry lobby, an annual contribution of 20 billion euros from digital giants could give a boost of 72 billion euros to the European economy.