The European Union has announced upcoming duties and fees for parcels valued under €150: a €3 customs duty will take effect in July of 2026, and a separate handling fee will take effect in November of 2026.
Flexport said in an analysis that additionally, several individual EU member states intend to introduce their own handling fees for low-value parcels, which will be charged on top of bloc-wide fees.
The Netherlands will introduce a national handling fee sometime after February 1, 2026, while other states may introduce fees earlier in the year. The Dutch government is currently coordinating with other EU states to avoid a "waterbed effect," or a situation in which trade shifts to countries with delayed implementation.
"The Council today agreed to apply a fixed customs duty of €3 on small parcels valued at less than €150 entering the EU, largely via e-commerce, from July 1, 2026," the European Council announced related to its decision to levy customs on low-value goods entering the bloc.
It noted that this "temporary measure" responds to the fact that such parcels currently enter the EU duty free, leading to unfair competition for EU sellers, health and safety risks for consumers, high levels of fraud and environmental concerns.
"The measure will stay in place until the permanent arrangement for such parcels, agreed in November 2025, enters into force. The €3 duty will be applied to each different item, according to their tariff headings, contained in a consignment," the Commission added.
On November 13, 2025, the EU announced that it had reached an agreement on eliminating duty-free treatment for goods valued under €150. The European Council intends to introduce a temporary transitional solution as soon as 2026, and will implement a longer-term solution upon the expected launch of the proposed EU Customs Data Hub in 2028.
Flexport said the EU's announcement comes just months after the U.S. officially ended its US$800 "de minimis" exemption rule on August 29, 2025.
Amid rising shipping costs to the U.S., EU lawmakers have raised concerns over potential diversions to Europe, where direct-to-consumer ecommerce shipments have already skyrocketed in recent years.
The Flexport report noted that EU consumers imported approximately 4.6 billion low-value ecommerce shipments in 2024, a figure that has more than tripled since 2022.
Chinese ecommerce brands have propelled a large portion of this recent surge, largely made possible by the duty-free threshold for low-value goods. In 2024, 91% of all low-value ecommerce shipments destined for the EU originated from China, with major Chinese marketplaces accruing more than 75 million users in the EU in the span of a few months.
"EU lawmakers have raised a number of concerns. The European Council has suggested that the duty-free threshold incentivizes practices that undercut EU businesses, citing estimates that up to 65% of small parcel imports are undervalued to avoid customs duties," Flexport said.
It added that the threshold also incentivizes environmentally unsustainable shipping practices, with many non-EU sellers splitting packages into smaller parcels to meet the duty-free threshold.
Meanwhile, EU authorities have expressed growing concerns over counterfeit or otherwise non-compliant products purchased online, citing potential safety risks and intellectual property infringement.
As the end of the €150 duty-free threshold looms ahead, Flexport said this would mean increased costs for ecommerce brands importing into the EU; procedural changes for value-added tax (VAT); and a growing focus on data-driven compliance with the EU intends to launch its proposed Customs Data Hub in 2028 intended to serve as a centralized digital platform for data exchange and risk management.
Flexport said the EU Customs Data Hub will likely result in stronger enforcement of product requirements, payment provisions, and other compliance measures.
Aside from the US, the U.K. government has also announced in November 2025 that it intends to abolish its duty-free exemption on imported goods worth £135 or less by March of 2029 at the latest.
