A €3 fee also came into force in July, leading to a 60% drop in small parcel imports over three months. The new rules aim to counter imports from Chinese platforms, whose low prices threaten European retailers.
The new €2 fee, which comes into force on 1 November, will apply to all packages, regardless of their value, and will cover customs handling costs. It comes in addition to the €3 duty.
In 2024, 91% of those shipments came from China, posing fierce competition for European retailers.
So we’re not going to care about the remaining 9%?
For example, a package valued at €10 containing a pen, notebook and key ring purchased online and sent from outside the EU contains three different items. Since 1 July 2026, the €3 Customs Duty charge applies to each item, resulting in Customs Duty of €9, plus any applicable VAT. From 1 November 2026, an additional Union Handling Fee of €2 per item will also apply, adding €6. The total charges will therefore be €15, plus any applicable VAT.
And example of what’s in those 9% (as of 2024):
However, eCommerce goods sent from Great Britain to Ireland will be liable to Customs Duty, VAT and from 1 November, the Union Handling Fee.
Most people don’t understand why this is a good thing.
On these platforms the consumer is the importer. Meaning there is absolutely zero consumer protection happening. If whatever you import is toxic/dangerous/not working as advertised you can do jack shit.
Forcing these companies to build warehouses in the EU makes them the importer and actually liable for all the toxic junk sold.
I would say “Most people don’t understand” is the general sad state of things…
Not only being responsible for properly importing safe stuff to the EU! Right now everyone buying cheap trinkets (with heavily subsidised China shipping) basically kills any local business… China can afford to do price dumping and local makers or importers have to go through more rigourous procedures (more safety regulations) as well as actually pay import duties and handlig fees…
In the end is basically leveling the playing field to avoid getting our EU business killed (and then China, like any other gracious mafia, would hike up prices)
China
Non-EU countries, so even UK.
If Chinese goods are a problem, why not restrict this to imports from China?Non-EU countries are a problem. Just protecting local, single market. What’s so wrong with that? Other countries can be protectionists (see US for example)…
Because making it a universal rule doesn’t single out China and also protects from schemes where the same cheap shit starts coming through Vietnam instead.
Let’s hope they make warehouses in EU.
That‘s the idea because authorities can actually investigate big warehouses when they‘re right here and not on a different continent. Apparently Temu is already advertising fast shipping from German warehouses. Not that I‘m shopping there.
Ive bought some stuff shipped from the EU some years back.
Wonderful, gotta love making individual imports of things literally not available in the EU more expensive for no reason while mass commercial imports of Chinese products benefit once again.
I mean yeah it might suck, but it’s for very good reasons lol
Good luck getting components.
I just tried AliExpress forfun.
50 red LEDs at €0.79. Cool. Just with €6.15 import fees.
Scummy resellers must be jumping in the air from excitement.Scummy resellers must be jumping in the air from excitement.
They’re not, as they know people buy LEDs and other cheap electronics from AliExpress because they’re cheap. The price increase is also not just from import fees but also an (undesired) strengthening of the CNY to most major currencies, as for the euro it’s been almost 10% since January.
I understand the sentiment behind the Chinese imports. But it’s not like the retailers who mark up the product they in turn buy from aliexpress are more than rent seekers.
The 9% hurts. Again I understand it’s to prevent shipping via a convenient third country but there’s a lot of really cool stuff that comes from the world outside of China. Not to mention UK.
I just don’t understand what the desired outcome is here. Alibaba already builds warehouses in the EU and sends entire shipping containers of orders at a time, to be sorted and labeled after “import”. So the 60% drop in individual parcels isn’t a drop in imports, it’s just an administrative detour.
That is the desired outcome. The EU has fairly strict consumer protection laws for all sorts of items. A container usually containers one sort of item. So it takes about as long to check the container with a thousand items, than a single parcel with one. Hence the EU wanting to ship them over like that.
I genuinely don‘t understand why people don‘t get that. We need much more oversight on imports because of all the toxic waste from China washing over our continent. This is a way to make it at least logistically realistic. If anyone else has better suggestions I would love to hear them. Though I bet all they‘ll do is downplaying the problem.
Because if they only make small packages into containers, without actually bringing in more staff to proper test things, the desired effect is basically zero, but makes stuff more expensive for the consumer.
There is little to no independent testing of products done to check anything ever, from any origin. The rules are good old protectionism and rent-seeking by retailers in the EU.
Are they containering one sort of item though? I’m ordering stuff and it takes regular shipping times from China, so it doesn’t seem like they have local stock, but I’m also not paying the surcharge. So either they’re shipping large quantities of the things I buy and storing it for next time, or they’re stuffing a couple thousand orders in a container and avoiding the individual parcel tax that way. (Or they pretend it takes 3 weeks, but actually just ship from Italy on day 18.)
The desired outcome is for the government and commercial importers to earn more money.
Damn so they have to open all the packages to determine the fees?
I believe this will just keep being charged directly by most platforms.
/s?
