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The EU’s €150 duty exemption is gone: what the €3 per-item customs duty (from 1 July 2026) means for your shop

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For years, parcels worth €150 or less could enter the European Union without customs duty. That ended on 1 July 2026. Since then, a flat €3 customs duty applies to low-value e-commerce imports, and it is charged per item category, not per parcel. If you sell from the US, UK or Asia directly to EU consumers, this affects your margins, your checkout and how you pack orders.

This guide explains what changed, how the €3 is calculated, who pays it and what to do about it.

What changed on 1 July 2026

The EU removed the customs duty exemption for low-value consignments by deleting the relevant articles of the duty relief regulation. The legal basis is Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 of 11 February 2026. According to the European Commission’s Access2Markets service, this regulation abolished the exemption and introduced a temporary €3 duty per item that applies from 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2028.

The Council of the EU’s February 2026 press release describes the €3 as an interim flat rate that will be replaced by normal customs tariffs once the new EU Customs Data Hub is operational, which is currently expected in 2028. VAT is a separate matter: as FedEx notes, all goods imported into the EU have been subject to VAT regardless of value since 2021, and that has not changed.

How the €3 is calculated

The most common misunderstanding is that the €3 is charged per parcel. It is not. It is charged per item, and “item” has a specific customs meaning.

The Commission’s guidance for Member States and trade defines an item as one or more goods in a consignment that share the same tariff classification, description and (where required) origin. Because of current IT limitations, the guidance says the duty is applied automatically per declaration line, whatever the quantity on that line. Goods with different tariff subheadings may not be grouped on one line.

In practice:

  • One parcel with three identical T-shirts = one item = €3.
  • The Council’s own example: a parcel with two toys, one wool coat and three bottles of shampoo contains three categories of goods, so the duty is €9.
  • Ireland’s tax authority gives a similar example: a €10 parcel with a pen, a notebook and a key ring attracts €9 in duty, while two identical pens count as one item (Revenue).

The €150 limit refers to the intrinsic value of the whole consignment, meaning the price of the goods themselves, generally excluding separately stated transport and insurance. Above €150, normal duty rates apply by product, as before.

Splitting orders does not help

The Commission guidance says goods in one order that are dispatched separately are separate consignments, and DHL points out that the same product shipped in two parcels is charged in each parcel (DHL Express guide). The guidance also describes anti-abuse checks for shipments that look like bundled individual consumer orders. Splitting an order usually means paying the €3 more than once.

Which shipments are covered

The €3 applies to goods sold in distance sales (business-to-consumer sales where the seller arranges delivery, directly or indirectly) in consignments up to €150. According to the Commission guidance, it applies:

  • to all goods where VAT is collected through the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS);
  • to “postal consignments” as newly defined, which covers other distance sales up to €150 using the Special Arrangements or standard import VAT;
  • regardless of the declaration type used (H1, H6 or H7);
  • also to alcohol, perfumes and tobacco, which were previously excluded from the old exemption.

Main exception: goods with preferential origin under an EU free trade agreement or customs union agreement can claim the preference only if they are declared on a full H1 declaration and IOSS was not used. All IOSS imports pay the €3, even if the goods would qualify for preferential origin. FedEx’s guidance says the same. B2B shipments to VAT-registered businesses fall outside the distance-sale scope.

Note: the Council’s December 2025 announcement said the duty would apply to IOSS-registered sellers. The final February 2026 text and Commission guidance are broader and cover non-IOSS distance sales too. Rely on the later documents.

Who pays

The EU frames the duty as a charge on business, not on consumers. The Commission guidance says responsibility lies “first and foremost” with the declarant: the IOSS holder, the Special Arrangements user, or their indirect representative (often your carrier or customs agent). In commercial terms, though, someone has to absorb it:

  • You collect it at checkout and ship on duty-paid terms, so the customer pays nothing on delivery.
  • The carrier collects it from the customer before delivery, usually with a clearance fee on top.

Ireland’s Revenue describes both models from the consumer side. The second one tends to cause refused deliveries and returns.

Returns and refunds

The Commission guidance says that for low-value distance-sale goods, operators can no longer use the facilitation that let them invalidate a declaration after goods were returned, so the €3 cannot be reimbursed that way. General refund rules still apply. Revenue tells Irish consumers the €3 is non-refundable unless the goods are faulty. Plan your returns policy assuming the duty is usually lost.

What to do now

  1. Recalculate margins on your typical EU basket. Count distinct product types per parcel, not units.
  2. Get HS codes right for every SKU. The number of tariff lines drives the cost.
  3. Decide on duty-paid delivery. If you use IOSS, collecting the €3 at checkout is usually the cleanest option.
  4. Think about bundles. Multi-category bundles cost more in duty than single-category ones.
  5. Budget for the next fee. From 1 November 2026, a separate €2 Union handling fee applies per item on top of the €3. See our guide to the 1 November changes.

How long will the €3 last?

The Commission says the flat €3 applies until 1 July 2028, after which normal duty rates by product will apply. A Council working document notes that if the Data Hub is not ready by then, the Commission is to propose an extension (Council document ST 8820/26). The 2028 date is therefore planned, not guaranteed.

Sources

  • European Commission, Guidance on the EUR 3 customs duty and Union handling fee: https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/053e5b4e-f0be-4f20-9a23-3e3b659a6676_en?filename=Customs%20Guidance%20on%20EUR%203%20customs%20duty.pdf
  • European Commission news, 8 June 2026: https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/news/guidance-and-legal-text-temporary-flat-fee-low-value-imports-which-will-apply-until-1-july-2028-2026-06-08_en
  • Access2Markets (European Commission): https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/news/eu-applies-eu3-customs-duty-item-low-value-e-commerce-consignments
  • Council of the EU press release, 11 February 2026: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/02/11/council-gives-final-green-light-to-new-customs-duty-rules-for-small-parcels/
  • Council of the EU, EU action on the influx of small parcels: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-action-influx-of-small-parcels/
  • Council document ST 8820/26: https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-8820-2026-INIT/en/pdf
  • Revenue (Ireland), How the fee applies: https://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/individuals/union-handling-fee/how-the-fee-applies.aspx
  • FedEx, EU customs changes: https://www.fedex.com/en-ca/shipping-services/international/regulatory/eu-customs-changes.html
  • DHL Express, EU customs duty guide: https://www.dhl.com/discover/en-nz/logistics-advice/essential-guides/eu-customs-duty-malaysia-ecommerce

Last updated: 29 October 2026. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice.

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