EU €2 Parcel Handling Fee Takes Effect on Top of €3 Import Duty

A second charge on cheap parcels from outside the EU

On 1 November, the European Union began charging a €2 handling fee on e-commerce parcels sent from outside the bloc. It is the second charge in four months aimed at the flow of low-value goods that comes mostly from Chinese platforms.2127 The fee applies on top of the flat €3 customs duty that replaced the old €150 duty exemption on 1 July.2112 Brussels says the two charges do different jobs. The duty is meant to make sure every import pays its share of tariffs. The handling fee is meant to cover the cost of inspecting the parcels. One EU official said e-commerce puts a disproportionate burden on customs authorities.21

The timing stands out. The fee starts a few weeks before Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas rush, when cross-border orders usually peak.2729 For people who shop on Temu, Shein and AliExpress, it marks the end of the price gap that made those platforms cheaper than European retailers.

How the fee works

Some headlines say the fee applies to "all packages," which is not quite right. Reports agree that it is charged once for each type of item in a parcel, not once per parcel. A box of ten identical T-shirts pays €2. A box with two hats and ten T-shirts pays €4.2226 Polish coverage describes the same rule in customs terms: the fee applies per tariff subcategory. A parcel holding clothing, electronics and cosmetics would therefore pay €6.28 The €3 duty is counted the same way, so the two charges rise together. Under that method, a parcel with three different garments would owe €9 in duty and €6 in handling fees.11

Coverage differs on one point: whether the fee applies above €150. Euronews says it covers parcels of any value.21 A breakdown of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152 agrees, and adds that the fee is non-refundable even if a parcel is refused, and that VAT is charged on it.11 The Polish report, by contrast, limits it to distance-sold consignments worth up to €150.28 Both versions agree that the fee targets parcels sold online and shipped directly to consumers. In practice, almost all of that traffic is under €150 anyway, so the disagreement matters less than it seems.

The money is split between Brussels and national capitals. Member states collect the fee, keep 25%, and send 75% to the EU budget.2123 The handling fee is permanent. The €3 duty is temporary and expires on 1 July 2028, when normal product-specific tariffs take over.2229 The Commission must review the fee's level every two years so that it stays in line with what customs controls actually cost.2429

Who pays

The EU says shoppers will not be billed. Platforms, sellers or carriers owe the fee, and the list includes US marketplaces such as Amazon as well as AliExpress and Temu.2122 Reports also note the obvious gap in that promise: sellers can raise their prices and pass the cost on.2630

Europe's consumer group BEUC is less worried about higher prices than about how they appear. It fears some platforms will add the cost late in checkout. That would be illegal under EU law, which requires the full price to be shown upfront.27 BEUC's Agustin Reyna said customs authorities have been asked for years to deal with illegal imports on limited budgets while parcel numbers grew out of control.27

On this point the official line hides more than it explains. The legal duty to pay sits with businesses, but the fee is built to change the price of what consumers buy. A per-item-type charge hits small, mixed baskets of cheap goods hardest, and that is exactly how ultra-cheap marketplaces sell. Consumers will pay one way or another. What matters is whether the charge is visible when they decide to buy.

What the €3 duty has done so far

The early figures from the July duty help explain why Brussels added a second charge. The Commission says small-parcel imports fell 60% between July and September.21 Wire reports put the drop at about 64%, though officials say it is too early to draw firm conclusions.2225 Even after the fall, about 5 million parcels still enter the EU every day.21

National and private data point the same way but vary in size. Poland's tax administration reported that customs declarations fell by about half.28 Joko, which tracks bank transactions of 1.5 million people in France, found Temu spending fell 50% from June to July, AliExpress fell 37%, and Shein fell 15%.4 Belgian customs collected €170 million from the new duty in July alone.4

The starting point was huge. Nearly six billion small parcels entered the EU last year, and about 93% of cheap shipments came from China.2225 When the duty was introduced, the Commission said low-value packages accounted for 5.9 billion items in 2025 but only about 2% of total import value. It argued the gap pointed to widespread undervaluation.13 It also cited a 2025 EU-wide investigation which found that more than 60% of low-value goods failed product safety or compliance rules.13

The warehouse loophole

The biggest weakness in the policy is not the amount of the fee. It is that parcels already inside the EU are not charged. Goods shipped to buyers from platform warehouses in the EU, after clearing customs in bulk, are not subject to the new fee. Major Asian platforms are building exactly that kind of warehouse network.28 One industry analysis claimed Shein and Temu moved a large share of EU-bound stock into European warehouses before July. That would leave the charge falling mostly on smaller sellers who still ship direct.17 That analysis also called the €3 levy a per-parcel fee, which conflicts with official descriptions, so its specific claims deserve caution.172 The basic point still holds, and other coverage supports it. Earlier reporting noted that Brussels wants foreign platforms to invest in European warehousing and compliance, and pointed to Shein's expansion in Poland.18

Seen this way, a drop in parcel numbers does not have to mean Chinese platforms are losing customers. Some of the decline is probably goods switching from individual air-freight parcels to bulk imports that are dutied normally and then delivered domestically. The policy can count that as a success: bulk imports go through standard customs and are easier to inspect. But it is not the same as protecting European high streets, which the Commission described in June as trying to prevent their "desertification."12

The bigger customs reform

The handling fee is the first piece of the EU's new Customs Code to take effect. According to Polish reporting, the code entered into force on 20 September. Most of its provisions apply from September 2027, and full rollout runs to 2034.28 At the centre is the EU Customs Data Hub, a single system meant to give customs authorities a much wider view of supply chains and company data.28 When it goes live, expected in July 2028, flat-rate charges will give way to tariffs based on each product's classification, origin and value.13

Brussels chose a single EU-wide approach partly because national efforts were failing. France's own €2 parcel tax backfired: platforms flew cargo into Belgium and trucked it across the border. French customs estimated about 90% of parcel volume was diverted, and the tax raised only €2.3 million a month.18 France suspended the tax when the EU duty began.4 Other member states, including the Netherlands, had been preparing their own charges, and the Commission wanted to avoid a patchwork of national rules.6 A single fee across all 27 member states removes the option of shipping through a cheaper neighbour.

The fee also sits alongside wider enforcement against the same platforms. In May, the Commission fined Temu €200 million over dangerous baby toys and faulty chargers. It is also investigating Shein over illegal products.21 In September, it proposed legislation that would always make an EU-based business legally responsible for non-compliant products sold online.21 Political support has been open. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said irresponsible companies would no longer be able to exploit easy trade, after years of selling cheap, sometimes dangerous goods without paying import duties.23

What it adds up to

The most likely reading is that the €2 fee is less a revenue measure than the final step in removing a structural price advantage. With the €3 duty, a €5 single-item order now carries €5 in extra charges before VAT. That doubles its pre-tax cost and wipes out much of the price gap that made direct-from-China shopping hard to resist.11 The fee is unlikely to end cross-border e-commerce. It is more likely to push the biggest platforms further into European warehouses, leave smaller direct shippers with the heaviest costs, and test whether consumer law can stop the fee from being hidden at checkout. The holiday season will give the first indication of whether shoppers stay with the platforms anyway.