The news: From Nov. 1, EU customs is expected to charge €2 on every item in an online order shipped to an EU shopper from outside the bloc. Enforcement of new product ID rules on those parcels starts the same day.
Implications:
Per-order cost: Once the fee starts, expected Nov. 1, a three-product order under €150 pays €15 at the border before VAT, up from €9 today and nothing before July.
Data: Each item in a parcel under €150 needs your own product ID and the maker’s on the customs filing, so the carrier or broker filing it has to receive both.
EU stock: Orders filled from stock already cleared into the EU pay neither charge.
The News
The European Commission set the new EU handling fee at €2 per item on Sept. 21, and its customs guidance expects it to apply from Nov. 1 to every online order shipped to an EU consumer from outside the EU. It comes in addition to the temporary €3 duty per item the EU started charging on July 1 for parcels worth €150 or less.
The same guidance makes Nov. 1 the day enforcement starts on product IDs for those parcels. Since July, filings could carry the IDs voluntarily with no penalty. From Nov. 1, each item in a parcel worth €150 or less must carry the seller’s own product ID, such as its SKU, plus an ID assigned by the manufacturer or supplier.
Why It Matters
Unlike the €3 duty, the fee has no €150 cap, no 2028 end date and no refund, so it is a permanent cost on every item in every direct order to the EU. Shipping from stock already cleared into the EU is the only way around it today, and that same move takes those orders out of the new product ID filing as well.
How It Works
Customs counts an “item” as the goods in one parcel that share a tariff code, description and origin, so five identical T-shirts are one item while a T-shirt and a watch are two. In practice, the Commission says, both the fee and the duty apply to each line on the customs filing, whatever the quantity on that line.
What It Costs
For example, once the fee starts, a €100 order holding three product types pays €9 in duty and €6 in handling fees, or €15 in all before VAT and carrier charges, by our math. Before July 1, that same order paid no duty and no handling fee.
Once the fee starts, a three-product order pays €15 at the EU border, by our math.
Filling the same order from EU stock removes that €15. The goods pay the regular duty rate once instead, when they are imported in bulk. VAT and returns add to the bill:
VAT: The Commission’s guidance counts the fee as part of the sale price, so VAT is charged on it too.
Returns: The fee is due once customs accepts the filing, so a parcel that is refused or sent back still owes it. The EU also ended the option for sellers to cancel the €3 duty on returned low-value orders.
Who’s Exposed
Multi-product orders: Each distinct product type adds €5 to an order under €150, so bundles and kits pay the most, while several units of one product on one line pay once.
Low-price items: A single-item €20 order pays €5, a quarter of its value.
High-return categories: Apparel and footwear pay the fee on every item shipped, including the ones customers send back.
Orders over €150: They never paid the €3 duty, but once the fee starts they pay it on every item in addition to regular duty.
Who Else
The biggest senders are moving stock into the EU:
Temu: PDD co-CEO Chen Lei said in August the EU duties would bring “lower fulfillment efficiency and higher costs in the short term,” so the company is signing up more local merchants and speeding up local warehousing.
Shein: It expanded its warehouse in Wrocław, Poland, to fill EU orders from local stock, shipping goods in bulk and paying regular duty once at import instead of per parcel.
What’s Next
Nov. 1: The fee is expected to start, the same day product ID enforcement begins for parcels under €150. From then, filings for direct orders must carry code Y126, which triggers the fee automatically. The fee’s date could still slip, because it applies 10 days after the Commission’s act is published in the EU’s Official Journal, and the guidance still lists that act as under review by EU lawmakers.
July 1, 2028: The €3 duty ends and direct orders pay regular duty rates. A lower fee starts for goods shipped to shoppers from EU customs warehouses, at an amount the Commission will set later.
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