Apple, Google, Amazon to raise prices after European 'digital services tax'
The 3 tech behemoths will raise their prices 2% to reflect the new tax
Apple, Google and Amazon announced they will be raising prices for enterprise customers in the U.K. after the government announced a new "digital services tax."
U.K. developers for the App Store will see their costs rise by 2%, while Amazon said it would increase "referral fees, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) fees, monthly FBA storage fees and Multichannel Fulfilment (MCF) fees by 2% in the UK to reflect this additional cost."
Google is increasing the fees for ads purchased on Google Ads, as well as YouTube, by 2%.
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Apple also said it would be changing some of the prices of apps and in-app purchases in the App Store to reflect changes in taxes or foreign exchange rates in a number of different countries. The changes are as follows:
Chile: New value-added tax of 19% Mexico: New value-added tax of 16% Saudi Arabia: Increase in value-added tax from 5% to 15% Turkey: New digital services tax of 7.5% (in addition to the existing value-added tax of 18%)
Germany: Reduced value-added tax rate from 19% to 16% (effective July 2020) France: New digital services tax of 3% (in addition to the existing value-added tax of 20%) Italy: New digital services tax of 3% (in addition to the existing value-added tax of 22%)
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The price increases are effective Sept. 1 and will not be applied retroactively, all three companies added.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 225.00 | -3.22 | -1.41% |
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 172.49 | -3.09 | -1.76% |
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 202.61 | -8.87 | -4.19% |
Facebook has not yet announced an increase in prices. FOX Business has reached out to the company with a request for comment.
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Tech publication The Verge was the first to report the price increase.
Shares of the three giants were mixed in Thursday trading, with Apple falling 3.1% to 129.96. Amazon and Alphabet (the parent company of Google) were higher, gaining 0.36% and 1% to trade at $3,511.77 and $1,671.24, respectively.