What changed
Until this summer, a parcel going into the EU with goods worth under €150 paid import VAT but no customs duty. That exemption has gone. Since 1 July 2026 a flat customs charge applies to those consignments instead, and it is due to run until 1 July 2028, by which point the EU's wider customs reform is meant to replace it.
If you sell into the EU and most of your basket sizes sit under €150, this is the first time in years that duty has been a line on those orders at all.
How the charge is worked out
It is a flat €3, and it is charged per tariff category in the consignment rather than per item or per parcel. A box holding six of the same product is one category and costs €3. A box holding a candle, a mug and a tea towel is three categories and costs €9, because each of those classifies differently.
The €150 test is on the intrinsic value of the goods, so shipping and insurance do not count towards it. It is also a euro figure, which matters more than it looks: a £140 order is comfortably under £150 and comfortably over €150 at current rates, and pays duty the ordinary way.
One part of the rule is genuinely unsettled. The Commission says the charge is based on tariff classification without saying how many digits of the code count, and the trade press is split between the four-digit heading and the eight-digit subheading. We count the codes as they are declared, which is the finer reading. If it is pinned down to something coarser, we change a setting and orders priced after that use the new basis.
The bit that catches people out
A line with no commodity code on it still gets classified at the border, so it still attracts the charge. We count those lines rather than quietly leaving them out, which means an unclassified catalogue costs you real money on every EU order and you cannot see why.
If you sell into the EU, getting commodity codes onto your products is the single cheapest thing you can do this quarter. They live on the product in the portal, they take a few minutes each, and they stay put once they are set.
What is probably coming next
A per-item handling fee of around €2 has been trailed for later this year, on top of the customs charge rather than instead of it. The basis for it is still being written, so we have the field in place and set to zero rather than guessing at a number and building it into anybody's prices. When it lands and we know how it is counted, it turns on and shows as its own line.
What we do about it on your behalf
For orders you send Delivered Duty Paid, we work the charge out when the order arrives and hold it against your duty wallet, so the money is set aside before the parcel moves. When the carrier's own invoice comes in, the held figure is settled against what was really charged and the difference goes back either way. The order shows which of the two you are looking at rather than leaving you to guess.
For orders that go on your own carrier account, nothing is held. The charge reaches you through your carrier's bill in the usual way.
Worth doing this month
- Check how many of your EU orders sit under €150 rather than £150. The gap between the two is where the surprises are.
- Fill in commodity codes on anything you ship to the EU. Blank ones cost the same as filled ones and tell you nothing.
- Look at a mixed order and count the categories. A three-line gift set carries three charges, not one.
This is how we read the rule and how the system is built to apply it. It is not tax advice, and the reading of the classification point may move. If duty is a large enough part of your cost to be worth arguing about, your carrier's customs desk will confirm the position for nothing, and we will change our figures to match. Your account manager can start that conversation.