A Justice Ministry spokesman confirmed this week that the fee was yet to be determined, describing it only as an “appropriate” fee.
The new law, if implemented, would cover the manufacture of CD burners, printers, hard disk drives and high speed modems. The manufacturers of photocopiers already pay such a fee.
Not surprisingly, the proposal has met with strong opposition from the industries likely to be affected. It has already been suggested that many companies would move their operations out of Germany if such a tax were imposed.
A full report on the proposed law is due today.