September 2 news, a few days ago, Macron stated at a press conference of the G7 summit that France and the United States have reached a "very good agreement" on digital tax, overcoming the difficulties between the two sides. After reaching an international agreement on "digital tax", France will cancel the digital tax imposed in its country and refund the difference to companies that have paid taxes. If France's digital tax is really canceled, it means that Amazon France's 3% commission rate increase may also be canceled.
It is understood that in July this year, France, despite Trump's threats, passed a bill to impose digital taxes, which will take effect retroactively from January 1 this year. France's digital tax will be levied on companies with annual global digital business revenue exceeding 750 million euros (about 840 million US dollars) and annual business revenue in France exceeding 25 million euros (about 28.14 million US dollars). The tax will affect about 30 companies, most of them American, including Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
Amazon then publicly stated that it would pass on the cost of a new French digital tax to consumers and business partners. The company warned that the digital tax measure could make it harder for some small businesses in France to compete with foreign rivals. "We had no choice but to pass it on to others. We recognise that this could put small French companies at a disadvantage against competitors in other countries. We have alerted the French authorities," he said.
On August 1, Amazon sent an email to sellers on the French site stating that due to France's imposition of a 3% digital tax, Amazon will increase the sales commission rate on the French site by 3% starting on September 1, 2019.
It is worth noting that Trump's statement was quite "ambiguous". At the G7 summit press conference, he did not directly indicate whether the two sides had reached an agreement or whether he had given up imposing tariffs on French wine. He only said that "the (US) First Lady likes French wine very much."
French President Emmanuel Macron also explained that France will cancel its own "digital tax" once a new international tax project being discussed by 134 OECD member countries is introduced. France hopes to complete the relevant process by 2020. In other words, France's taxation on Amazon will continue in 2019.
