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Meta To Charge Advertisers a Fee To Offset Europe's Digital Taxes (reuters.com)

(Wednesday March 11, 2026 @12:00PM (BeauHD) from the passing-along-the-cost dept.)


Meta will [1]begin charging advertisers a 2-5% "location fee " to offset digital services taxes imposed by several European countries, including the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Turkey. Reuters reports:

> The fee, for image or video ads delivered on Meta platforms including WhatsApp click-to-message campaigns and marketing messages together with ads, will apply from July 1 and will also cover other government-imposed levies. "Until now, Meta has covered these additional costs. These changes are part of Meta's ongoing effort to respond to the evolving regulatory landscape and align with industry standards," the company said in the blog.

>

> The location fees are determined by where the audience is located and not the advertisers' business location. Meta listed six countries where the fees will apply, ranging from 2% in the United Kingdom to 3% in France, Italy and Spain and 5% in Austria and Turkey.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/meta-charge-advertisers-fee-offset-europes-digital-taxes-2026-03-10/



For once a regulation is working as intended (Score:5, Informative)

by DrStrangluv ( 1923412 )

This makes advertising in those areas more expensive, meaning fewer ads for users in those countries. And the ads they do see will be higher value, from companies that know they can make a return, and not low-value/low-return blanket spam. So up until the point where Meta decides it's no longer worthwhile to provide the service, I call this a win.

Re: (Score:3)

by Sique ( 173459 )

And the consumer in this case is the company buying the ad. You as John Q. Public using Meta's services are the product.

Re: (Score:2)

by higuita ( 129722 )

why should they? the public ends paying them anyway, one way or another, at least is included in the price and not hidden

Re: (Score:2)

by Growlley ( 6732614 )

Already do meta freeload of the bandwidth I pay for.

Re: (Score:2)

by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

> This makes advertising in those areas more expensive, meaning fewer ads for users in those countries.

It might mean a smaller pool of differing ads, but it does not mean fewer ads for those users. In fact, Facebook might even increase the number of ads shown, because they will be more motivated to do so in order to sell more ad placement.

> And the ads they do see will be higher value, from companies that know they can make a return

That is not how advertising works. It's from companies whose advertising managers think they can make a return.

> and not low-value/low-return blanket spam

That is not how facebook works. All content on facebook is tagged automatically. When you interact with it those tags are copied into your "interests", whether tha

Except (Score:2)

by hwstar ( 35834 )

A few companies will double down and make their ads even more obnoxious and pushy as a desperate attempt to get people to buy the product. Hopefully this tactic backfires.

Re: (Score:1)

by sabbede ( 2678435 )

Have you ever seen obnoxious or pushy ads go away? I can think of one - "Head On, apply directly to the forehead (x4)". While Kars for Kids has been running a painfully bad jingle for decades, because for whatever godawful reason, it works.

Obnoxious ads stick with you, and that's what advertisers want. I worked at a car dealership for a while, and the ads they ran were embarrassingly bad and irritating. I asked the sales manager about it, and his response was essentially, "well, you remember them, ri

Re: (Score:2)

by snowshovelboy ( 242280 )

I would expect the opposite. I would expect that fewer ads in ad inventory would lead to lower quality ads being shown overall.

Re: (Score:1)

by sabbede ( 2678435 )

But what will actually happen is that all ad-supported platforms will apply this surcharge to advertisers, who will then raise their prices. The number of ads won't change, because companies still need to do it and prices will rise across the industry.

It will bring in more tax revenue, but it is directly inflationary.

I want Facebook to die (Score:2)

by dskoll ( 99328 )

The good news is that the number of monthly active Facebook users has pretty much [1]stalled [demandsage.com] since 2023.

Now, can we see it decline? Please? Pretty please?

[1] https://www.demandsage.com/facebook-statistics/

Re: (Score:2)

by higuita ( 129722 )

hey, delete your account and convince other people to do the same...

if not that, post in your facebook account that you will not use facebook anymore and ask others to do the same and do the same post. if enough people see the post, it may trigger a leave movement... but facebook is so huge because everyone created accounts for their parents, uncles, grandpas, etc ... they are mostly unused accounts, but some still use them.

also stop using instagram, whatsapp and other meta alt names. I personnaly refuse t

Re: (Score:2)

by dskoll ( 99328 )

I no longer have a Facebook account as of January 2025.

I also don't have Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. accounts. I don't use Meta products at all.

And believe me, I am [1]doing my best [skoll.ca] to convince people not to use Facebook.

[1] https://dianne.skoll.ca/writings/how-to-use-facebook/

A manager asked a programmer how long it would take him to finish the
program on which he was working. "I will be finished tomorrow," the
programmer promptly replied.
"I think you are being unrealistic," said the manager. "Truthfully,
how long will it take?"
The programmer thought for a moment. "I have some features that I wish
to add. This will take at least two weeks," he finally said.
"Even that is too much to expect," insisted the manager, "I will be
satisfied if you simply tell me when the program is complete."
The programmer agreed to this.
Several years later, the manager retired. On the way to his
retirement lunch, he discovered the programmer asleep at his terminal.
He had been programming all night.
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"