Week in Insights: France Taxes Tunes on Its Own and Pays a Price

Curated by Daniel Xu

In response to a new streaming tax designed to support the local music industry, Spotify has announced a subscription price hike for French users. The move comes amid other “disinvestments” by the music streaming service in France more generally.

The price increase aims to offset the 1.2% tax on streaming revenue generated in the country and reflects the perils of unilateral state action in the global marketplace. When countries seek to support their domestic markets or cultural sectors through taxation, global companies can simply adjust their operations by hiking prices or even curtailing ...