The EU imposes a duty of three euros on small e-commerce orders

European On Friday, the Union’s finance ministers agreed on a customs fee of three euros for e-commerce orders. The customs duty will enter into force on July 1, 2026.

The decision is part of the EU’s efforts to curb cheap imports from Chinese online stores. Customs applies to shipments worth less than 150 euros.

French Minister of Finance Roland Lescure told news agency Reuters that the tariff will remain in place until a permanent solution is found. The goal is to completely remove the exemption from customs fees for small e-commerce orders.

EU size approved the commission’s proposal in November, which would permanently remove the customs exemption for deliveries under 150 euros. However, the permanent solution will only come into force in 2028, when the EU’s new customs data center is ready.

France in particular has been frustrated by the slowness of EU actions and has demanded faster actions. The three-euro duty that has now been decided is a temporary solution, which enables the collection of duties even before the permanent system is completed.

According to the Commission, an average of 12 million deliveries worth less than 150 euros arrived in the EU every day last year. More than 90 percent of the deliveries came from China.

Consumer organizations and European retailers have long called for tougher measures against Chinese online stores.

Specialty shop the union’s CEO Ulla Pöllänen told HS in November that Finnish online and brick-and-mortar stores are in trouble, especially due to weak consumer demand, but competition from Chinese online stores is partly making the situation worse.

“It is of the utmost importance to us that the operating environment is equal. This is not the case now,” said Pöllänen.

The avalanche of Chinese packages is also being combated in Europe with other measures. EU countries have already decided that a separate processing fee will be imposed on foreign e-commerce deliveries. It will start to be charged in November 2026. The fee is two euros per batch of goods.