Union Customs Code Adds €2 Fee on Top of €3 Small-Parcel Duty

Two new charges on small parcels, with more to come

For about two decades, European e-commerce worked on the assumption that a cheap parcel from outside the EU would arrive duty-free. That assumption no longer holds. Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, the new Union Customs Code, appeared in the Official Journal on 19 September 2026 and entered into force the following day. It replaces the 2013 code and sets out the new framework for EU customs.1113 Legal commentators widely call it the most comprehensive overhaul of EU customs law since 1968.1215

The effects on cross-border online retail are already visible. Since 1 November, customs authorities have collected a €2 Union handling fee on each item sold at a distance and imported from outside the EU. The Commission set the amount in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152, which was published on 22 October.2425 That fee is charged in addition to the temporary €3 customs duty, which has applied since 1 July to items in consignments worth €150 or less. For a typical low-value order, the two charges add up to €5 per item.2829

The main point of this article is that the new code is more than an administrative update. It changes who is responsible for imported goods. Today's fees fund the system and encourage behaviour change, while the change in liability, which takes effect over the next decade, will have the larger long-term impact.

How the charges stack up

The €3 duty and the €2 fee are separate measures with different legal bases, and much of the confusion among merchants comes from treating them as one. The €3 duty comes from Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382.18 The Council agreed it in December 2025 as a quick, temporary way to end the €150 duty exemption before the permanent system was ready.4 The Council said the duty would apply wherever non-EU sellers use the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for VAT, which covers 93% of e-commerce flows into the EU.4 The duty is due to expire on 1 July 2028, when normal tariff rates take over.521

The handling fee comes from Article 20 of the new code. Coverage agrees that it differs from the duty in two ways. It has no value ceiling, so distance sales above €150 are also charged, and it has no end date.2129 It cannot be refunded. Dutch customs guidance gives refused parcels, failed deliveries and returns as examples where the fee is still owed.21 Commission guidance also treats the fee as part of the VAT taxable amount, so the real cost to the buyer is somewhat higher than the €2 headline figure.24

Each charge is applied per "item", and coverage agrees on what that means in practice. An item is defined by tariff classification, not by individual unit or by parcel. Several units under one HS code count once, while a parcel containing goods under different headings is charged several times.19 DHL describes the duty as charged per customs declaration line.5 Commission guidance says items cannot be grouped to reduce the flat duty.27 As a result, a parcel with three different product types now carries €15 in EU charges before VAT.30

One retailer-focused analysis shows why this matters most at the low end of the market. A €3 duty on a €30 accessory amounts to a 10% effective duty rate, compared with 2.5% on a €120 item.3 Adding the €2 fee makes that gap wider.

Who pays: the main disagreement in the coverage

The biggest disagreement in the reporting is about who bears the cost. Several sources say the handling fee is legally owed by the importer for distance sales, meaning the seller or the platform that facilitates the sale, and that the consumer does not pay it.1329 Others describe the party liable during the transition as whoever declares the goods: a platform, seller, carrier or customs agent.2625 On the €3 duty, one customs consultancy said before July that consumers would end up paying it in practice.1

The sources are describing different things, so they do not actually contradict each other. The law decides who owes the money to customs. The market decides who absorbs the cost. Under the old code, liability often fell on the consumer without their knowledge, because couriers used direct representation.18 The new code ends that formally. Even so, nothing prevents a platform from adding a fee at checkout. German lawyers are already warning that this raises questions under price-display rules, with a risk of warning letters for sellers who get it wrong.27 Shoppers should expect to see these costs in prices, even though the legal liability no longer sits with them.

Platforms become importers

In the long run, the most important change is that the code drops the concept of the "declarant". Responsibility is placed on a defined importer, who must be established in the EU and who answers for compliance with product-safety and other non-customs rules as well as for duties.1219 For e-commerce, the code creates a specific "importer for distance sales", defined as either the supplier or the party facilitating the sale, which moves responsibility onto marketplaces.15 Non-EU operators will need an indirect representative in the Union, and that representative must hold authorised economic operator status.15

A French customs practice highlights an effect that has received less attention. When the client is outside the EU, the indirect representative effectively becomes the importer and takes on liability for product conformity. That is a major transfer of risk to customs brokers, whose business has been built on providing a service rather than carrying product risk.19 Brokers that handle large volumes for Asian marketplaces are likely to rewrite their contracts or raise prices.

The penalty regime for distance sales is designed to have real force. A first systematic infringement can lead to fines of 1% to 4% of the operator's total EU imports over the previous twelve months. A repeat within six months raises the range to 3% to 6%.12 Because penalties are calculated on annual import value rather than per transaction, large platforms face a level of exposure similar to EU competition-law fines.19

A long timetable

The headlines suggest everything has changed at once, but most of the code is not yet in effect. General application starts on 21 September 2027, when the 2013 code is repealed.1113 Distance-sales provisions, including a new customs warehouse model for e-commerce, apply from 1 July 2028.13 From that date, IOSS users and importers for distance sales must use the EU Customs Data Hub. Other operators can join voluntarily from March 2031, and use becomes mandatory for everyone in March 2034.1218 The Data Hub is intended to replace more than 100 national IT systems.18

The customs warehouse for distance sales is the clearest example of how the EU wants to change behaviour. Sellers will be able to store non-EU goods in bulk and release them for free circulation only when a consumer buys them, and items released this way will qualify for a lower handling fee.1814 The policy aim is to replace millions of individual air parcels with bulk shipments that customs can inspect. That fits with logistics advice that the new charges may push sellers from direct B2C shipping towards B2B2C models.1 UK sellers who already use EU-based fulfilment are expected to be much less affected than those shipping single parcels directly to customers.7

Some requirements apply sooner. From 1 November, declarations for low-value distance sales must include structured product identifiers, and declarants must use TARIC additional code Y126.1225 Detailed delegated and implementing acts under the code are expected around November–December 2026, and German practitioners say Commission officials are still drafting them.14

Analysis: preventing fragmentation, then moving responsibility

Much of the speed of the past year was driven by the EU's wish to keep the single market from splitting. Several member states had already acted on their own. Romania introduced a fee of about €5 per shipment in January, France a €2 per-item fee in March, and Italy its own €2 charge.108 Advisers report that the Commission wanted a coordinated EU-wide solution to avoid a patchwork of national fees.7 The Commission also has a mechanism to tighten rules further. It must assess every month whether trade is being diverted to avoid the €3 duty, and if it finds diversion it must propose extending the duty to all goods in consignments up to €150.21

The overall direction is clear even though the timeline is long. The EU has set up the financial measures first: a temporary duty to remove the price advantage for low-value imports, and a permanent fee to pay for inspections. The structural measures will follow, with platform liability, penalties based on turnover and a centralised data system designed to shift responsibility away from consumers and onto large intermediaries. For non-EU sellers whose business depends on single, low-margin parcels sent directly to European consumers, the €5 per item is only the start of these changes.