Communications ministers from several European Union (EU) member states indicated opposition to large technology players contributing to mobile network costs, Reuters reported, though a number of their peers apparently back a levy.

The news website claimed during a meeting with European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton last week, 18 national representatives were either completely against a network levy on content providers or wanted a wider investigation.

Representatives from ten nations are said to have backed charges.

Those reportedly critical of the move include representatives from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, while those in favour of a network levy included France, Italy and Spain.

The speculation is the latest in what is a hot, but divisive issue in the European telecommunications and technology sectors, with big name operators calling for large players to contribute to the underlying infrastructure used to deliver their services.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, large content providers including Netflix and Meta Platforms have voiced opposition to the move.

The issue was included in a wider European Commission consultation into various elements of the communications industry, which had a deadline of mid-May for comments.

In its response to the consultation, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications expressed “reservations about mandatory financial contributions from CAPs [large content and application providers] to ISPs in the form of a sending party network pays regime.”