If Net Neutrality passes through the FCC in the next month, it will protect the Internet and ensure that all web companies have a level platform to work from in the U.S. However, not every country sees the value in an "open internet."
A French minister is proposing that ISPs charge major websites an additional tax in order to operate on their network, The Register reported. French Cultural Minister Fleur Pellerin told the press that she planned to introduce a new tax on the "use of bandwidth." In particular, Pellerin expressed that she wanted to create a "level playing field" for French broadcasters that wanted to compete with Netflix. This could also affect sites like Google, Bing and Apple. Pellerin's proposal isn't surprising, considering that the minister told the Financial Times in 2013 "she was looking at data transfer, traffic and interconnection to work out where the big Internet companies were making their money."
While this plan could certainly change things for internet companies in France, it's unclear if Pellerin's law will pass, considering that the latest EU Telecoms Package contains a new law on net neutrality that could make such a law ineffective.
But if such a law passes, many don't expect it to actually "level the playing field." Karl Rode of Techdirt notes that "as a general rule of thumb, I've found that almost anytime somebody claims to be interested in 'leveling the playing field,' they're usually busy trying to do the exact opposite."
