News #202615 - EU tightens low-value import duty rules

• From July 2026, the EU will introduce a flat €3 duty on low-value e-commerce parcels under €150, alongside wider reforms aimed at phasing out the current duty-free threshold by 2028 and tightening rules on cheap imports.
• Lawmakers have raised concerns that some operators could try to bypass the charge by bundling consumer orders and presenting them as business-to-business shipments, but the Commission has confirmed these remain taxable as individual consumer sales regardless of how they are packaged.
• While the legal position is now clear and backed by planned anti-abuse measures, the real uncertainty sits in enforcement, with questions over whether customs authorities can realistically track and verify high-volume parcel flows across fragmented data systems.

From 1st July 2026, a flat €3 charge will apply to e-commerce parcels coming into the EU worth less than €150. The idea is straightforward enough: bring a bit more balance between European retailers and overseas platforms that ship directly to consumers without the same cost burden. It also ties into a wider shake-up due in 2028, when the long-standing €150 duty-free threshold is set to disappear entirely.

But as with most customs reforms, the details are where things start to get complicated.

Lawmakers have already picked up on early signs that some operators may try to game the system. One concern is that consumer orders could be bundled together and re-labelled as business-to-business imports, which might in theory sit outside the new charge. A separate €2 customs handling fee is also in the pipeline, and could arrive sooner than expected, possibly July 2026 instead of November.

An EU parliamentary question has already put this issue on the table, and the Commission’s answer was fairly blunt. Grouping individual customer orders together does not change what they are in legal terms. If they originate as consumer purchases, they remain subject to the €3 levy, no matter how they’re packed or shipped.

On paper, that closes the door on the most obvious workaround.

The Commission has leaned on established EU court principles, making the point that each transaction has to be judged on its own facts. In other words, you can’t turn retail sales into wholesale simply by changing the logistics.

To back this up, officials are also working on technical updates to customs rules. These would help flag shipments that appear to be misdeclared, and introduce an anti-abuse clause allowing authorities to reclassify artificially grouped consignments.

The bigger question, though, isn’t really about legal definitions. It’s about whether any of this can be enforced properly once millions of parcels start moving through the system.

Tracking what’s inside high-volume cross-border shipments depends on access to detailed order-level data, which sits across a patchwork of platforms, warehouses and logistics providers. That kind of visibility isn’t always straightforward, especially when you scale it across all EU Member States.

And that’s where the tension lies. The rules may be tightening on paper, but whether enforcement can keep pace with the sheer volume of low-value trade is still very much up for debate.

Source: https://aircargoweek.com/eu-tightens-low-value-import-duty-rules/ 

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