GERMANY: German industry leaders and consumer groups have attacked as "arrogant" and "cheeky" a new monthly €5.52 licence fee on all PCs and third-generation mobile phones to be introduced next year.
The PC fee, also believed to be under consideration in Ireland, is expected to generate an additional €5 billion over the next two years for Germany's public broadcasters on top of the existing television/radio fee.
Germany's public broadcasters argue that, in the future, it is the computer and not the television or radio that will be used to access electronic media.
But industry bodies have attacked the decision as damaging for Germany as a place to do business.
"Owning a computer or a third-generation mobile phone has nothing to do with listening to the radio.
"These devices serve work and business," said Rolf Kurz, of the Federation of Self-Employed.
Germany's licence fee of €17 a month for television and radio generates €7.1 billion for public broadcasters and is already one of the highest in Europe outside Switzerland and Scandinavia.
The fee collection agency, the GEZ, is probably the most unpopular body in the country because television and radio - and now potentially every computer - at home, work or in the car, is liable to its own fee.
That explains why the federal statistics office has 39 million households registered in Germany, but the GEZ has 41 million accounts.
Government ministers point out that the fee is not applicable to anyone who is already paying for a television and radio licence, and that it is independent of the number of computers in a home or office.
Protests are gathering momentum and a large-scale demonstration is likely next January.
"This only makes modern communication more expensive and less attractive," said Gunnar Bender of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany.
"It counteracts the technically possible convergence of radio, television and internet, and with it the goal of a more interlinked, modern information society."
The Berlin Doctors' Federation has already called for a national boycott.
"It is really far from reality to think that doctors and their employees have time in their daily work to listen to the radio and watch television," said Sascha Rudat, spokesman for the federation.