SACD condemns EC ‘procrastination’ over content creation tax

French content creators group SACD has expressed strong concern at what it sees as procrastination on the part of the EC in its examination of the legality of France’s tax on service providers to support audiovisual content creation.

The SACD said that the tax had been reformed and lowered by the French government last year. The government then notified the EC of the changes, but met with resistance from the EC’s DG Connect. The SACD condemned the delay in approving the changes, which it said allowed ISPs to escape responsibility for contributing to content creation and which had an adverse impact on the finances of the French Centre National du Cinéma (CNC). The SACD said that there was no justification for granting exemption from the tax to ISPs.