Duty on low-value parcels from China in UE – what will change from 1 July 2026

Duty on parcels from China – do Chinese e-commerce platforms pose a threat to EU businesses?

As reported by the European Commission, in 2025 around 5.8 billion e-commerce parcels with a declared value of up to EUR 150 were expected to reach EU Member States. In practice, this means millions of parcels delivered every day, with nearly 90% originating from China. These figures highlight the scale of the problem – the European market being flooded with products from Asia, which threatens the interests of businesses operating in EU countries.

Where does the problem lie – and why does the EU see it as systemic?

The main issue is the intentional undervaluation of parcels and abuses related to Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009, which establishes a Community system of reliefs from customs duty for consignments below EUR 150.

In official EU communications, we can find alarming estimates suggesting that up to 65% of small consignments may be deliberately undervalued to avoid customs duties. This, in turn, leads to growing frustration among European sellers who operate under full compliance requirements. They not only bear the full logistics costs and undergo detailed customs and tax inspections, but are also subject to extensive reporting obligations – which many suppliers from China manage to bypass.

Another key reason for introducing stricter rules is safety and security. The EU wants to ensure that Chinese exporters comply with the same stringent standards as local sellers.

In addition, we are seeing a growing scale of so-called parcel splitting – dividing a single order into several smaller shipments. From an environmental perspective, this mechanism “multiplies” climate-related costs: instead of one parcel, there are several, which means more cardboard, plastic, fillers and labels to dispose of later. Importantly, every additional shipment increases transport volume, which raises the total CO₂ emissions per order. On the scale of billions of small parcels, this effect stops being a minor detail and becomes a real environmental burden that the EU aims to limit, among other measures, through mechanisms such as EUDR and CBAM.

Protecting EU businesses – duty on products from China worth up to EUR 150

The goal of abolishing the duty relief for parcels below EUR 150 is to reduce the competitive advantage of a model based on mass imports of low-value consignments, often with free delivery from third countries. The European Commission seeks to curb a system that has become prone to abuse and is technologically unfit for today’s e-commerce realities.

Duty on products from China – what will change from 1 July 2026?

A transitional solution: a EUR 3 fee regardless of the parcel’s value

As part of measures introduced before the full roll-out of the final system solutions, the EU Council has agreed to implement a temporary mechanism for collecting customs charges on low-value e-commerce consignments. Under the adopted arrangements, from 1 July 2026 a flat-rate import duty of EUR 3 will apply to parcels with a value not exceeding EUR 150. This instrument is intended as a transitional step until the target reform enters into force, linked to the implementation of the EU Customs Data Hub and the full abolition of the duty relief for this segment of shipments.

At that stage, we should expect price increases from Chinese sales platforms, which will be forced to open warehouses within the EU and integrate their systems with the new EU customs infrastructure.

The new mechanism will apply only to parcels sent to the EU by sellers established outside the European Union who are registered in the EU Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) system, used primarily for VAT settlement on imports in the e-commerce model. The EU Council indicates that this solution is expected to cover approximately 93% of all e-commerce flows entering the EU, which confirms its broad application.

Who will be affected by the EUR 3 fee?

The transitional solution will most strongly affect customers shopping on platforms such as Shein, AliExpress, and Temu. This channel accounts for the dominant share of low-value parcel volumes.

It’s important to understand that the EUR 3 flat-rate customs duty does not replace VAT and does not change the rules for calculating or collecting VAT. It is a separate import duty designed to limit the cost advantage of non-EU entities and partially level the playing field for businesses operating in the EU market. The EUR 3 rate is an import customs duty established within the EU legal framework in the area of customs.