TMT 2025

FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Clara Hainsdorf, Bertrand Liard, Saam Golshani and Guillaume Vitrich, White & Case LLP

• this second threshold has been met in each of the last three financial years. The designated gatekeepers under the DMA are subject to a list of ex ante obligations and pro - hibitions, most of which must be implemented within six months of their designation. The DSA takes a more comprehensive approach, encom - passing a wider range of digital intermediary ser - vices and imposing requirements on very large online platforms and very large online search engines to address systemic risks associated with their operations. On 6 March 2024, the new DMA regulatory framework came into effect for the first desig - nated gatekeepers. This framework includes rules on interoperability and data sharing, and prohibits practices such as self-preference. The European Commission oversees its application and can impose fines of up to 10% of worldwide turnover for infringement (20% in case of repeat offence). At the time of writing, the European Commission has designated seven gatekeep - ers (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft) and 24 core platform services. The DGA, together with the Data Act, is part of the European Data Strategy presented by the European Commission in 2020. This strategy aims to develop a single data market by sup - porting responsible access, sharing and reuse, in compliance with EU values, and particu - larly the protection of personal data. The DGA entered into force on 24 September 2023, with a compliance obligation for entities providing data intermediation services no later than 24 Septem - ber 2025. The regulation aims to promote the sharing of personal and non-personal data by setting up intermediation structures, and con -

cerns all sectors of activity, public and private, without restriction given the nature of data. It includes a framework facilitating the reuse of certain categories of protected public sector data (confidential commercial information, intel - lectual property, personal data), and regulates the provision and sharing of data services by imposing notification obligations (private as well as public) and compliance obligations on the operators of these services. It also develops a framework for the voluntary registration of enti - ties that collect and process data provided for altruistic purposes. 1.2 Digital Economy Taxation Traditional tax rules cannot adequately tax high - ly digitalised businesses without a traditional “bricks and mortar” presence. Because of the difficulty in achieving agreement on a multilateral level, France introduced a French digital servic - es tax (DST) in 2019. The French DST encom - passes online advertising, sales of user data and the use of digital platforms. The tax applies to resident and non-resident companies with a worldwide turnover exceeding EUR750 million and a French turnover exceeding EUR25 million. The 3% tax applies on gross revenues, deriving from the provision of a digital interface, targeted advertising and the transmission of data about users for advertising purposes. France's Finance Law for 2024 introduced a new “streaming music services tax”, which came into effect on 1 January 2024. This 1.2% tax applies to both paid and free services providing access to recorded music and online music videos in France, levied on amounts exceeding EUR20 million. Entities established outside of France may be subject to French value-added tax (VAT) obliga -

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