French President Nicolas Sarkozy is exploring the feasibility of taxing international search engines in France. This comes as no suprise really, especially considering the the dominant position Google maintains in online advertising globally.

Sarkozy stated that "For the time being, these companies are taxed in the country in which they are headquartered even though they make up a big part of our advertising market." 

According to Yahoo! News, Sarkozy made this announcement following a report that suggested France could charge a tax on internet advertising revenue from market leaders. This report suggested that the tens of millions of euros taxed could be invested in French creative industries which has been lacking of late. 

If this search engine tax is implemented it will mean that search companies (e.g. Google, Bing and Yahoo!) that are not based in France will be taxed if France based users click on advertising banners or sponsored links.