Outbrain is charging surcharges for ads serving in specific countries. Regulatory Operating Costs or DST Fees may be charged in addition to your advertising costs every time an ad is served in specific countries. These surcharges are associated with the cost of doing business in these countries. Below is additional information about specific surcharge percentages and where they apply.
UK DST Fee
As of May 1, 2021, a 2.05% UK DST Fee will be added to your next invoice or statement for ads served in the United Kingdom. The surcharge is driven by the new digital services tax in that country.
France, Italy and Spain DST Fee
As of February 1, 2023, a 3% DST Fee will be added to your next invoice or statement for ads served in France, Italy and/or Spain. The surcharge is driven by the new digital services tax (DST) in those countries.
Automatic payments & Monthly invoicing
We’ll add the surcharges to your Outbrain campaign costs once at the end of every month, to be paid the next time you are charged. These surcharges will also be added on top of your account budget if you’ve set up one. For example, if you have a budget of $100 and accrue $2.05 in UK DST Fees for ads served in the UK, you’ll be billed $102.05 (plus any taxes, such as VAT, that may apply in your country). These surcharges will be shown as a separate line item on your invoice.
The new surcharges will be subject to any taxes, such as sales tax, VAT or GST that apply in your country. Any taxes, such as sales tax, VAT or GST that apply in your country will be charged in addition to the new surcharges.
How surcharges are calculated?
Surcharges are levied based on the number of ad impressions or clicks that are served in a specific country. If you advertise in several countries, you’ll only be levied a surcharge when ads have been served to people in the impacted countries. (For example, if you advertise in Germany, UK and Israel, you will be levied only the surcharges that correspond to the countries where the surcharges are applicable).
It is possible for a campaign that doesn’t explicitly target a particular country, for example the United Kingdom, to show ads to users in the United Kingdom because your business might be in a location of interest for those users. Therefore, it’s the advertiser’s responsibility to ensure that your campaign target settings are correct and the ads are served in the intended countries. Outbrain will not refund the Regulatory Operating Costs or DST Fees that were charged as a result of legitimate clicks and impressions served according to your campaign target settings.
If you find that your ads are served in an unintended country, it is recommended that you explicitly exclude the country from your target setting.
Have any other questions about pricing or billing or need an older invoice? Just ask us.