Three of the biggest names in tech are raising some service fees to offset the impact of the digital taxes implemented recently in the U.K. and other countries.

Apple Inc. and Google LLC said in separate statements today that they plan to start passing on the cost of the taxes to customers soon. Also on Wednesday, Amazon increased some of the supply chain fees it charges third-party merchants by 2% in the U.K. as part of a similar, previously announced plan to offset the impact of the digital sales levy.

The U.K. in April introduced a “Digital Services Tax” amounting to 2% of the revenues that search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces generate from local users. The levy specifically targets large tech firms with annual worldwide revenues of more than 500 million pounds and U.K. sales of at least 25 million pounds. Earlier, France and Italy introduced similar digital taxes.

Apple said on Wednesday that it will start applying the new levies to developers’ app revenues within a few days. The iPhone maker will deduct 2% from an app’s earnings in the U.K. and 3% in France and Italy, then apply its regular fees. That Apple will deduct the tax before rather than after it takes its cut from app sales means the company will bear a part of the cost.

Google, in turn, told The Guardian that it will pass on the cost of the U.K.’s digital tax to customers of its advertising services through a 2% increase in ad prices.  “Digital service taxes increase the cost of digital advertising,” the search giant said in a statement. “Typically, these kinds of cost increases are borne by customers and like other companies affected by this tax, we will be adding a fee to our invoices, from November. We will continue to pay all the taxes due in the U.K., and to encourage governments globally to focus on international tax reform rather than implementing new, unilateral levies.”

The rate hike is expected to add some 120 million pounds, or about $160 million, to the ad expenses of marketers using Google’s advertising services in the U.K.

Photo: Pixabay