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%.
APPLE CONFIRMS THE NEXT IPHONE WILL BE DELAYED
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%)
APPLE SAYS APP STORE CREATED 300K JOBS IN 16 MONTHS AMID ANTITRUST BATTLE
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. | 239.59 | +2.26 | +0.95% |
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 171.49 | +2.54 | +1.50% |
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 210.71 | +2.82 | +1.36% |
Facebook has not yet announced an increase in prices. FOX Business has reached out to the company with a request for comment.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
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.