EU approved November 2026 implementation for €2 customs admin charge on small parcel imports
The new EU Customs Code published on 19 September 2026 introduces a €2 customs handling fee on low-value parcels valued below €150. This will be from 1 November 2026. The plan was agreed to by the Council of the European Union on 3 September.
This is to synchronise it with the 1st July €3 EU Customs duties fee on the same parcel imports. The new Customs Code provides the legal basis for the e-commerce handling fee, but does not set its amount. That will be determined separately by the European Commission through a delegated act.
This will be €2 per parcel imported into the EU for delivery to a consumer – there may be a discount for consignment shipments. However, the €2 is to be confirmed. The EC has produced a draft regulation for October 2026 approval.
This is largely in response to EU countries imposing unilateral fees since they were unwilling to wait for the March 2028 ending of the €150 exemption.
Chinese and other non-EU sellers & marketplaces customs admin charge proposal in response to widespread tax evasion
As part of the 2028 EU Customs reform negotiations, the European Commission had put forward in April 2025 an informal paper proposing a €2 customs administration charge on direct imports of goods to EU consumers.
The revenues raised would also not now go to EU own resources (budget) but to the member state of import. Brussels’ push to funnel the revenues to the EU budget rather than allow governments to use them has slowed progress on the plan, diplomats say. Countries which handle large amounts of packages such as Belgium and the Netherlands oppose the idea of handing the cash over to Brussels, while being forced to make more checks on the goods.
Ongoing debate on structure and use of levy
The levy would raise funds for EU customs, and help raise fraud detection activities. Member states are concerned about the explosion of VAT and customs fraud on small parcel imports, particularly from Chinese sellers and marketplaces.
Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told the European parliament he had proposed a handling fee to deal with the challenges of the 4.6bn items annually imported directly to people’s homes.
The proposal envisages a fee could be reduced to €0.50 per consignment if the importer is registered with the new “Trust and Check Trader” scheme which gives special advantages to customs certified importers.
May 2025: France pushes handling fee
At the start of May, French Finance officials again pushed the European Union to impose a customs handling fee on low-value consignments imported from China. Budget and Finance Ministers have said that the current rules unfairly favour ‘fast-fashion’ and low-cost e-commerce giants by allowing millions of low-value parcels to enter the EU without full checks or customs charges. France, and other EU member states, believe that marketplaces such as Shein and Temu circumnavigate the current €150 import duty threshold by breaking up sales into small shipments and / or misstating the customs valuation in declarations.
The €150 customs duties threshold is to be scrapped under 2028 EU customs reform proposals. The US $800 de minimis threshold for Chinese imports was withdrawn at the start of May 2025.
Jan 2024: EU reviews customs handling fee
European Commission officials have been reported since the start of this year to be considering a new customs administration levy on platforms for non-EU sourced low-value imports. A potential handling charge framework is likely to be made public on 4th February 2025 with the new Polish Commission in office at the start of January 2025. The move is spurred by complaints from many member states of unfair tax and lax product standards, discussed at the 10 December ECOFIN meeting of EU finance ministers.
The idea of a revenue levy, especially on Chinese sellers or platforms, now seems to have been put aside.
Any levy could be targeted at marketplaces on non-EU sourced goods sold to EU consumers and declared as under the €150 customs exemption threshold. It is believed that there is widespread under declarations of the value of parcels sold on popular sites such as Shein and Temu. Shipments from such sites will top €4 billion this year, and have tripled since 2022.
However, administration charge reported as being considered would likely fall foul of international tax rules and treaties. And would most probably transgress World Trade Organisation rules.
