Phone for Internet Companies

This development prompted US President Trump to order an investigation into France's tax, which could result in punitive fees.

The French Senate approved the government's proposal to tax the revenue of Internet companies by 3 percent. This tax will affect, among other things, major American technology companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google.

This development prompted US President Donald Trump to order an investigation, which could result in revenge fees. His trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, said the US is “very concerned” that tax “unfairly targets American companies”.

But France argues that these firms currently use legal vacuums in terms of taxes. During the debate in the Senate, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Muire called for the dispute between allies not to be resolved with threats.

“Mes allies we can and should resolve disputes not with threats, but in other ways. France is a sovereign country that makes sovereign decisions for its tax regime and will continue to make sovereign decisions on the issue,” said Le Muire.

Technology giants place their headquarters in low - tax places where they declare profits achieved worldwide by minimizing their tax bill.

With the new tax in France, every digital company with revenues of over 750m euros, of which generates at least 25m euros in France, will be subject to tax.

The US investigation could pave the way for punitive fees, such as those in China's case.