In 2011, Denmark was the first country to apply a tax on fats . Now, France has announced that, as of next January 1, it will apply a new tax on sugary and sweetened soft drinks . The tax will be levied at 7.16 euros for each hectoliter of soft drink, which means that the charge that a consumer must pay for a can of soft drink with sugar or sweetener is an additional two cents. The goal is to combat obesity, as announced by the French government, while raising around 120 million euros that will help clean up the country's economy. However, many experts argue that the price increase is insignificant and doubt that it will deter those who consume soft drinks.
There are other precedents taxing food that encourages obesity, such as the so-called "hamburger tax" in Hungary. And the governments of Great Britain and Spain are considering taxing fatty foods, despite the fact that an article published by the University of Alberta (Canada) in "The Journal of Consumer Affairsen" suggests that those labeled that warn that a product has, for example, a high content of saturated fat, they are more effective than fat taxes .
