As the SPD parliamentary group moves to tax productivity gains from artificial intelligence, the German internet industry association eco warns the plan would make AI adoption costlier for businesses just as the country is racing to catch up with global competitors.
Germany’s internet industry association eco has pushed back sharply against plans by the Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) Bundestag faction to introduce new taxes tied to the use of artificial intelligence, arguing the proposal threatens to undermine the country’s competitiveness at a critical stage of digital transformation.
The SPD faction was set to adopt new guidelines on AI in the workplace at a party retreat, among them measures to tax productivity gains generated by AI as well as impose higher levies on large technology companies. Reacting to the plans, eco chairman Oliver Süme said Germany had set itself ambitious goals for AI adoption in the economy, making it all the more important that political measures support rather than slow that development through additional costs and bureaucratic hurdles.
According to Süme, the SPD’s proposals create the impression that using AI could become more expensive and administratively burdensome for companies, a direction he described as the wrong path for the country to take.
Süme argued that artificial intelligence is no longer a topic confined to IT departments. Citing figures from the association, he noted that two out of three AI-related roles are now located outside of IT functions altogether, underscoring how deeply the technology has permeated business operations across sectors.
The eco chief pointed to a study conducted by IW Consulting on behalf of eco, which found that Germany’s competitive strength in AI stems from the combination of industry expertise, data, and engineering capability. According to the study, AI-driven product innovations and new services already generate more than 120 billion euros in revenue in Germany.
The research also found that AI is increasingly becoming a core qualification requirement for skilled workers in industrial settings, with the share of job postings at the skilled-worker level referencing AI having risen markedly since 2019. According to eco, this indicates that AI is now shaping day-to-day work in traditional industrial roles rather than remaining a specialist concern.
Süme said the findings show that AI has become an essential precondition for industrial innovation and is opening up new opportunities for employees. He argued that this transformation should be actively supported rather than curbed through new levies or additional regulation.
The eco chairman also addressed employee data protection, calling for clear and reliable rules in this area. He said a planned German law on employee data protection should not diverge from existing European Union requirements, warning that any such divergence would create additional obligations and legal uncertainty for companies operating in Germany.
Süme concluded that artificial intelligence must not be allowed to become a locational disadvantage for Germany, framing the debate over AI taxation as a broader test of whether the country’s digital and industrial policy will keep pace with its economic ambitions.
The dispute highlights a wider tension in German and European policy circles between efforts to ensure AI’s economic gains are broadly and fairly distributed, including through taxation of large technology firms, and industry concerns that additional costs and regulatory complexity could slow adoption at a time when many companies are only beginning to integrate AI into core operations.
eco, formally the Association of the Internet Industry, represents a broad cross-section of digital economy companies in Germany, from telecommunications and hosting providers to software and AI firms, and regularly weighs in on federal policy affecting the sector. It has positioned itself as an advocate for lighter-touch digital regulation, arguing that Germany and the EU risk falling behind the United States and China in AI deployment if compliance burdens accumulate.
The IW Consulting study cited by Süme is part of a broader body of research the association has commissioned to make the economic case for AI adoption in Germany’s industrial base, framing AI competence as a joint product of sector-specific know-how, data, and engineering skill rather than a capability confined to IT departments.
The SPD, for its part, has framed its proposals as an effort to ensure that the benefits of AI-driven productivity gains are not captured solely by large technology companies, but are also reflected in public revenue and worker protections, including through updated employee data protection rules. That sets up a broader debate within Germany’s governing coalition over how aggressively to tax and regulate a technology reshaping both white-collar and industrial work.
With the SPD faction’s new guidelines expected to feed into wider coalition and legislative discussions in the coming months, the disagreement between the party and industry groups such as eco is likely to become a recurring flashpoint as Germany works out its approach to taxing, regulating, and encouraging the spread of artificial intelligence across its economy.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de