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Posted: Wed 28th Jan 2026
6 min read
If you sell into the European Union (EU), the rules on low-value parcels are tightening up again.
The shift is away from the long-standing position where goods under €150 can enter the EU without customs duty.
For UK micro exporters selling direct to consumers through Etsy, Shopify, eBay, Amazon Marketplace and their own websites, this isn't a technical tweak. It'll have an impact on both your margin and your customer experience.
From 1 July 2026, a fixed €3 customs duty will apply to items in low-value consignments.
EU member states have agreed a temporary measure that applies a fixed customs duty of €3 on goods in small consignments valued at less than €150, starting 1 July 2026.
The European Commission's summary is explicit that this is €3 per item for relevant e-commerce parcels. But that could increase if businesses must pay to have it collected.
It's "per item", not per parcel, so multi-item baskets are exposed: The Council of the European Union is clear that the fixed duty will be applied at item level under the new approach, which is why basket size matters.
It's tied to Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) flows, which cover most e-commerce imports: The Council says the €3 duty will apply to goods where non-EU sellers are registered in the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for VAT purposes, and it states this captures 93% of e-commerce flows into the EU.
The longer-term direction is still to remove the €150 customs duty exemption: Separate to the July 2026 interim measure, the EU has agreed in principle to remove the €150 customs duty relief threshold.
That means customs duty can apply from the first euro, in line with the broader customs reform package and the roll-out of the EU Customs Data Hub.
The EU's case is that low-value parcel volumes are overwhelming customs systems, and the current threshold creates incentives for undervaluation and shipment splitting.
Reuters reports the scale policymakers cite: 4.6 billion low-value parcels in 2024, with roughly nine in 10 originating from China.
If you sell £8, £12 or £20 items, €3 per item is meaningful. And because the cost rises with each line item, it also penalises the very normal D2C (direct-to-consumer) pattern of add-on items and bundles.
Gareth Austin-Jones, co-founder of British shoe firm CocoRose London, says:
"In principle, the removal of the €150 de-minimis makes sense, as it aligns it with EU VAT collection.
"But only if it becomes simple and cost-effective for brands to manage. My initial query is who will be collecting the duty charge and what fees will be made for their service?
"If brands face a €10 to €15 charge from couriers for collecting a €3 duty payment, it feels certain that many small businesses will be forced to stop selling to the EU.
"Perhaps it can be integrated into VAT collection, by couriers or IOSS representatives, under the same VAT admin fee?"
If a buyer discovers extra charges at delivery, your business will likely see more failed deliveries, more returns and fewer repeat customers.
If you move charges to the checkout stage, you protect the experience but take on more operational work.
As scrutiny tightens, weak HS classification, poor origin records and messy product data stop being a nuisance and start becoming a cost. The EU is explicitly positioning this as an enforcement and risk-management issue.
Pull your top 20 European Union stock keeping units (SKUs).
Note average items per order, average order value and gross margin.
Model the impact of the €3 per item charge on your most common baskets.
Delivered at Place (buyer pays at delivery): Less admin, higher risk of customers being surprised and put off.
Delivered Duty Paid (you collect at checkout): Clearer for the buyer, but more admin and cash flow planning.
EU fulfilment can remove some of the friction, but it introduces VAT and makes inventory management more complicated. For many micro exporters, it's a later-stage move, not a quick fix.
Tighten Harmonised System codes, product descriptions and rules of origin evidence now, before platforms and carriers harden their rules.
The key point is that this is no longer just about whether your order value sits under €150.
From 1 July 2026, the number of items in the basket will matter, and surprises at the customer's door will hurt conversion and repeat sales.
If you export to the EU, treat the next few months as preparation time. Run the basket calculation, choose whether you want customers to pay at delivery or at checkout and tighten your product data so any avoidable errors don't catch you out.
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