France is considering a proposal to tax online advertising revenues earned by companies such as Google.

The proposal would extend to other companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo and would put an end to "enrichment without any limit or compensation," newspaper Liberation quoted Guillaume Cerutti, one of the supporters of the proposal, as saying.

Under the proposal, the revenue collected from taxing online advertisers as well as Internet providers would go towards helping creative sectors such as the music industry, which has been hurt by the digital age.

The proposal’s main supporter, record producer Patrick Zelnik, said the tax would take "a small percentage" of Google’s online ad revenue, which he estimated at 800 million euros a year.

The digital media think tank Renaissance Numerique said the tax proposal unfairly penalized advertisers.

"Let’s stop demonizing the Internet and consider the benefits the web brings," said its co-president Christine Balague in a statement.

"Neither online advertisers nor Internet service providers are robbing artists," she added. "Quite the contrary: they are taking part in… bringing consumers and artists together."

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