Ran into this in Spain this past May. Almost everywhere offered the option to pay (or ATM withdrawal) in USD. One ATM the wording it was something like "do you not decline the conversion" - or something so stupid. I cancelled out of that transaction. I did get hit once with one purchase early in the trip (low cost so good) where the clerk reached around and hit the accept DCC. I became VERY aware of that afterwards. One good thing with US credit cards is that they do prompt for signature (or at least my chase cards still do) so I think that pushed them to give me the credit card machine.

It was new to us how bad the ATM fees are (5-7 EUR) in Spain this year. We were in France in 2022 and no issue with DCC or fees. Portugal in 2019 and the same - no fees or DCC. I only did three WDs in our four weeks in Spain but must have hit 10 or 15 banks to find the best ATM. Kept cancelling out when they finally told me either the DCC or the awful fee. Found one bank that had no fee and 1% conversion fee. Wish I remembered it!

It is for sure a rip off. My brother got hit with it at an ATM in Italy a few weeks ago. He said he declined but I am pretty sure he misunderstood and did it wrong (does not travel much and is brilliant but not so smart!) I think he told me there was a fee and the exchange rate. EUR600 cost him something along the line of USD740.