Tablets to be taxed in France… but not Windows’?

Posted by nicoulas on Monday, January 10th, 2011 0

Hi everyone,
Here is a short summary of a new French tax on mobile devices to be voted soon, which could absurdly favour Microsoft.

Facts

on the 14th of December, the French “commission sur la rémunération pour copie privée” (Commission for financial compensation of private copying) has decided to increase the tax on hard drives, USB sticks and flash drives, and to newly tax some GPS devices and car radios, as well as on tablet PCs (which is the interesting one for us).

the killer detail is that regarding tablet PCs, only those equipped with music player, an _operating system made for mobile devices_ or a decidated operating system (“avec fonction baladeur, munies d’un système d’exploitation pour terminaux mobiles ou d’un système d’exploitation propre”)

Analysis

The “UFC-Que Choisir”, the biggest consumer protection charity in France, denounces that according to this phrasing, concerned tablets will be iPads (running iOS) and tablets running Android. But it would not concern tablets running Windows 7, since this is neither a mobile OS, nor a dedicated OS, but has been written for personal computers (sic!).

Future

This decision should be made official on the 12th of January, and made applicable on the 1st of February, at the latest on the 1st of March, if delays occur. If this goes its way, French electronics maker Archos’ Director Henri Crohas says he will support the French electronics maker syndicate (Simavelec) to take action before the State Council (conseil d’état).