What the new EU rule is, who it hits, and the smart moves we make so your profit stays protected. Built for ecom brands shipping from outside the EU. Most of these moves never touch your product prices.
Right now, anything worth 150 euro or less ships into the EU with no customs duty. That free pass is called "de minimis." It is the reason selling cheap products from China into Europe has been so easy.
From 1 July 2026, that free pass is gone.
In its place: a flat 3 euro customs duty on each TYPE of product in a parcel. The fee is charged per product type, not per parcel.
A product counts as one item when it shares the same tariff code, the same description, and the same country of origin. The EU's own example: 1 silk blouse plus 2 wool blouses = 6 euro, because silk and wool sit under different codes.
It gets bigger than 3 euro. Plan for about 5 euro, and more in some countries:
So build your numbers around 5 euro or more per product type, per parcel, not 3. Set it once. Do not reprice twice in four months.
Hits you hard if: you ship single parcels straight from China, or anywhere outside the EU, to each customer. Every order gets taxed. Every different product in that order gets taxed.
Barely touches you if: you already hold stock inside the EU. Most of our clients do not, so treat this as optional. Stock already inside the EU ships to customers with no per-parcel fee.
The fee is a flat amount, so it hurts cheap items the most: