Google charges ads in some EU countries for regulatory costs

Google will charge extra money for displaying ads in various European countries. Advertisers must pay a 2% ‘regulatory fee’ if they run ads on Google or YouTube in France, Italy and Spain.

Google has this week sent an email to advertisers to notify them. The company also refers to that a support page, although the new prices are not listed there. The company will charge a 2% “regulatory operating fee” to advertisers serving ads to users in France, Italy and Spain.

Those costs are also passed on for advertisements in India. In Turkey, the company charges five percent for this. In practice, this means that advertisers have to pay an additional 2% of their total spend on the Google Ads platform or on YouTube. This will take place on October 1 of this year.

The amount is calculated, according to Google, “to cover a portion of the costs associated with tax compliance for digital services.” For now, this only applies in a limited number of countries, but that tax may be passed on in all EU countries if the European Union enforces more tax on the internet company. In recent years, in many individual countries and in a European context, there has been increasing talk of a ‘digital tax’ that can be imposed on tech giants. Those conversations lie recently temporarily silent.