EU Customs Code Overhaul: €2 Parcel Fee Joins €3 Duty in November

A Customs Union rebuilt around the small parcel

For nearly two decades, a low-cost online order shipped from outside the European Union was treated as too small for customs to bother with. That ended in 2026. On 1 July the EU dropped the duty exemption for consignments worth €150 or less and replaced it with a flat temporary duty of €31113. In September the bloc also finished passing a new Union Customs Code. Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 was published in the Official Journal on 19 September and repeals the 2013 code. A third step is close: a €2 handling fee on each item, which the Commission set in a delegated act on 21 September and which is due to start in November4.

Each of these measures was covered as a separate story. Taken together, they amount to one large policy change. The EU is moving responsibility for cross-border e-commerce away from the consumer and the border post and onto the platforms and sellers. Early figures suggest this is already changing how goods get to Europe, even if it is not yet changing what Europeans buy.

What actually happened, and when

The timeline matters, because the reform was originally supposed to arrive much later. The Commission first proposed the customs overhaul in May 202335. Under that plan the €150 exemption would only have gone in 2028, when the wider overhaul took effect19. Finance ministers brought that forward in November 2025, citing a fast rise in parcel volumes19. In December 2025 they agreed the interim €3 duty, starting 1 July 20261.

The Council and Parliament reached a political deal on the full reform on 26 March 2026 and called it the biggest change since the Customs Union was created in 196831. The Council gave final approval on 3 September37 and Parliament voted on 16 September. According to one legal analysis, the new code entered into force on 20 September 2026, with implementation phased in from 2027 and full application by March 2034.

The reason for speeding up was volume. Reuters reported that low-value e-commerce packages doubled to 4.6 billion in 2024, and more than 90% of them came from China8. The Commission's own figure for 2025 is 5.9 billion low-value items entering duty-free. Those items made up only about 2% of the bloc's total import value13. The Commission has also said that parcels of up to €150 were 97.9% of packages by count but just 2.1% by value, with an average declared value of €8.8620. Industry groups estimate that about 65% of these parcels are undervalued to avoid duties and checks20. That helps explain why Brussels treats the issue as one of enforcement as well as revenue.

How the €3 duty really works

Much of the confusion in the coverage comes down to one question: is the €3 charged per parcel or per item? Some trade outlets have described it as a flat charge per parcel1518. The Council's text and the Commission's guidance point the other way. The duty applies to each different item in a consignment, grouped by tariff heading1. In practice the amount due is the number of declaration lines multiplied by €33. A box of five identical T-shirts therefore pays €3. A box holding a T-shirt and a watch pays €64. A Council source told Reuters that ten pairs of the same socks count as one item type, but wool socks and cotton socks count as two8.

There is also a smaller disagreement about how detailed the classification is. Reuters cites six-digit tariff codes8, while at least one market analysis refers to four-digit headings17. Merchants should take this seriously, because the level of classification decides how many €3 charges a mixed basket attracts.

The Council said the duty applies to goods from non-EU sellers registered in the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), which covers 93% of e-commerce flows into the EU1. IOSS still handles only VAT. The duty is a separate charge for which the declarant is responsible4. One compliance provider reports that under current Commission guidance, the carrier pays the duty to customs and then invoices the merchant6. The Commission says consumers are not billed separately when the parcel is delivered13. Even so, the cost is widely expected to reach shoppers through higher checkout prices722.

November's second layer

The handling fee is the next step. It was created by the new customs code and is meant to cover what customs authorities spend on processing parcels431. The amount has been reported inconsistently. Some earlier coverage described €2 per consignment5 or a figure set later by delegated act13. The most recent update puts it at €2 per item on top of the €3 duty, from November until 30 June 2028. After that, normal tariff-based duty plus the handling fee applies4. Parliament and Council are still reviewing that delegated act4. Also from November, declaring product identifiers becomes mandatory; it has been voluntary since July13.

At about €5 per item line, the charge is no longer small. For a three-category order from a discount platform, it could be larger than the price of the goods themselves. The average declared parcel value is under €920.

The structural shift: platforms become importers

The parcel charges get the headlines, but the larger change is in who is liable. Under the new code, platforms and distance sellers are treated as the importer, not the EU consumer31. They are responsible for customs data, for paying or guaranteeing charges, and for making sure goods meet EU product-safety rules36. Non-EU sellers will need to be established in the EU or use an EU-based indirect customs representative. Only representatives with Authorised Economic Operator or the new Trust and Check status may handle distance-sales imports.

The enforcement rules are strict. A first systematic breach can bring a penalty of 1% to 4% of the operator's total import value into the EU over the previous twelve months. A repeat breach within six months raises the range to 3% to 6%, and the operator is flagged as high-risk in the central system. Customs authorities will also have more freedom to use other valuation methods when the declared value of a distance sale looks doubtful34. That provision is aimed directly at the undervaluation problem.

All of this depends on IT systems. A new EU Customs Authority based in Lille will run an EU Customs Data Hub, a single portal that replaces the separate systems of up to 27 national administrations3136. The hub becomes mandatory for e-commerce on 1 July 2028 and for all traders on 1 March 203435. July 2028 is also when the flat €3 duty ends and the full normal tariff schedule applies to goods under €15013.

Early evidence: redirection, not retreat

This is where the reporting differs most. Some outlets expected Shein and Temu to be hit hard21. Air-cargo consultant Derek Lossing forecast a 10% to 35% fall in EU-bound e-commerce air freight in the weeks after the duty started24. The first figures point to a real drop in direct parcels. Transaction data from France showed Temu volumes down 50% between June and July, AliExpress down 37% and Shein down 15%23. Shein reported European second-quarter revenue down 13.9% year on year23. French customs estimated that small-parcel imports into the EU fell by 30% to 40%, and arrivals at Liège Airport reportedly halved27.

However, fewer parcels at the border does not necessarily mean less trade. Temu is reportedly aiming to fulfil 80% of European orders from inside the EU, using ten self-operated warehouses, and air now carries only 35% of its EU-bound volume26. Shein has expanded its warehouse near Wrocław in Poland and is shipping more goods in bulk25. Orders shipped from an EU warehouse count as domestic deliveries, so the per-item duty does not apply to them17. Amazon fulfils 97% of its EU shipments from inside the bloc and is largely unaffected26.

Our reading is that the policy is mostly doing what it was designed to do. The point was never to stop Europeans buying from Chinese platforms. It was to make those goods pass through customs the same way bulk retail imports always have. BEUC's Lea Auffret has noted that it is easier to inspect large batches of identical goods than tens of thousands of individual parcels27. Measured that way, the shift to EU warehouses counts as a success. It is less clear that European retailers will get the competitive relief they lobbied for. One analysis argues that relief is likely overstated28.

Who is most exposed

The smaller players without warehouse networks may bear the heaviest burden. Independent brands that ship parcels directly to EU customers through tools like Shopify face the new charges on every order, which could make cheap items unprofitable to sell5. EU-based sellers who restock from China in small lots now pay the charge on every parcel under €150 as well15. Origin rules add more friction. One UK seller says the H7 declaration format used for IOSS cannot yet record preferential origin, so even UK-made goods pay the standard €39.

The experience of individual countries also supports Brussels' push for one EU-wide rule. France brought in a €2 national parcel charge from 1 March 20262. Shippers then rerouted around it: French customs estimated that about 90% of volume was diverted, bringing in only €2.3 million a month. France suspended the charge once the EU duty took effect22. That result was the main argument for avoiding separate national schemes5.

The next milestones are the handling fee in November, the opening of the Lille authority in 2027, and the 2028 switch to the Data Hub. Before then, any seller still shipping individual parcels into the EU should clean up its HS codes, product data and IOSS setup.