EU proposes $6.2B tax on tech giants

BRUSSELS — European policymakers on Wednesday unveiled a proposal for a new tax on tech giants such as Facebook and Google, in a measure that could raise $6.2 billion through what advocates say would be a fairer way of taxing how the companies make their money.

The proposal would tap into digital titans’ revenues in countries where they have the bulk of their users and customers, imposing a 3 percent tax on income from online advertising, the sale of user data and the connecting of users to each other.

The initiative, which would face several rounds of approvals, comes amid a rapidly-heating trade conflict between Europe and the United States. Absent action by President Donald Trump, new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are set to go into effect on Friday, and EU leaders have threatened countermeasures to follow shortly after.

It also comes as Facebook’s actions are under a microscope, following revelations that the Cambridge Analytica data firm misused the data of 50 million U.S. Facebook users to help Donald Trump win the presidency and that Russians also targeted U.S. voters on the social network.

The action by the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union would seek to impose common tax rules across the EU’s vast market of 500 million consumers.

But the measure is likely to run into skepticism from the countries that serve as the legal homes to the companies, as well as small tech-savvy nations such as Estonia, where the technology behind Skype was born. Any EU-wide tax measure would require unanimity.