If the new PiS project comes into force, the state budget can affect up to one billion zlotys a year. By applying taxes to digital service providers, including Netflix, HBO and even Facebook the government wants to gain funds in this way to implement the recently announced election promises.

Imposing additional fees on digital giants, ie, according to the prime minister’s office, “fair taxation of profits generated by global companies in Poland, offering digital services such as advertising, online, VOD and streaming music” would be a way to cover the proposals for new social benefits, which PiS tempts the Poles against the upcoming parliamentary elections. The new provisions will therefore include Netflix, Spotify, HBO, as well as Google and Facebook.

According to the Prime Minister international corporations have millions of customers in Poland, but they do not pay suitably high taxes. The Polish government wants to take an example in this matter from other European countries, such as Germany and France, which are also trying to extort on American companies additional fees in the countries of the Old Continent.

As Internet surfers rightly point out, the tax will hit not so much in the content providers themselves as in the users of websites, which in the end will most likely have to pay more for subscriptions offered by streaming platforms. Charges for ads placed on social media and on Google will also increase.