On Thursday, 27 June 2013, the EU Court upheld the tax on telecommunications operators, introduced by the French government in 2009 to compensate for the ban on advertising on public television after 8PM. This tax concerns operators with proceeds of over EUR 5 million and represents 0.9% of their total turnover.

The tax was strongly contested by French telecommunications operators and the European Commission brought France to Court in March 2011 for non-compliance with EU legislation, namely Article 12 of the "Authorisation Directive of the regulatory framework for electronic communications ("Telecoms Package"), revised in 2009. Article 12 allows national regulatory authorities to impose administrative charges on operators of electronic communications for costs generated by frequency management, specifically for the management of the general authorisation system as well as the granting of rights for frequency use.

According to the European Commission, the tax is akin to an administrative fee falling within the scope of the "Authorisation Directive" and it is prohibited because it does not comply with the provisions of Article 12, i.e. it does not cover the specific administrative costs that are mentioned, but is based on operators' turnover.

However, according to the French government, supported by the Spanish and Hungarian governments, it is not an administrative fee within the meaning of Article 12, but a tax levy. This approach was endorsed by the EU Court of Justice, which dismissed the Commission's appeal.

It should also be stressed that the revenue generated by this tax is not directly allocated to France Télévisions, but to the state budget, which then pays a grant to public television.

The Court's judgment represents a milestone for the financing of public broadcasting and one can hope that a similar decision will be taken regarding the Spanish government, which adopted a similar taxation system a few years ago.