Spanish government as part of the Spain Digital 2020-2025 project tax on instant messaging apps, report our colleagues from Les Echos. It all started with criticism from several Spanish operators. Telecommunications companies are uncomfortable with the freedom offered by WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram or Facebook Messenger when their activities are similar to their own. However, operators are tightly regulated, taxed and regulated.
“I don’t want them edited, but if they’re not, then let me edit them too! Because if the conditions are not the same for everyone, it is not possible to compete.” recently filed a complaint against José María Álvarez-Pallete López, CEO of Telefonica, one of the largest operators in Spain.
A Spanish bill wants to accept WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram as operators
The bill put forward by Spain will directly break the record taxing all calling and instant messaging services equally. From now on, courier services will be considered as operators. Therefore, they will have to implement the legislation enacted in 2014 and register with the Spanish registry of communication operators. After all, services Pay one euro for every thousand euros collected in Spain if this turnover exceeds one million Euros. For now, we don’t know how this bill will include services like WhatsApp, Messenger and even Telegram. Users are not billed.
Roberto Sánchez, Minister of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, said that services such as WhatsApp, which is extremely popular in the country, “changed the way we use communication services”. Still succinct, this bill will be considered by the Spanish Parliament in the second quarter of 2021. This isn’t the first time a country has tried to tax courier services. In 2018, Uganda imposed a €17 tax on all WhatsApp, Messenger and Viber users to combat the spread of gossip.
Source : echoes
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