A new fee hit Finns’ purchases – And additional costs are on the horizon

The new customs fee has hit purchases made by Finns from online stores outside the EU.

From the beginning of July, a new customs fee of three euros has to be paid for online shopping purchases of low value, i.e. no more than 150 euros, ordered from outside the EU. The fee often applies to, for example, a Chinese person Temusta ordered goods.

The background is the EU’s decision to curb cheap import shipments.

According to the customs’ statistics, in July the number of import declarations for low-value goods fell by about two-thirds from June and three-quarters from a year ago.

“The drop in the amount of goods is not that great. The store monitors the number of orders and the average purchase. Now the average purchase has increased”, Trade union managing director Kari Luoto pay attention to Kauppalehti live Economic morning on Friday.

According to the customs’ statistics, the average price of goods declared in July was 10.6 euros, while it was 5.6 euros in June.

Luoto thought that those who ordered goods from outside the EU optimized the customs payment by ordering more goods at once.

“But the key thing is that the change shows that the [tullimaksu] works. In November, there will be another two-euro processing fee, so it will probably help even more [halpatuontilähetysten hillinnässä]”, Luoto said.

Different rules of the game

According to Luoto, companies in the specialty trade will largely benefit from the decrease in cheap import shipments in domestic trade, whether it is department stores or trade focused on a certain industry.

“These are specifically for a specialty store [halpatuontilähetykset] have bitten very badly. Others play by different rules than the trading companies operating here,” said Luoto.

Companies operating in the EU must ensure so-called compliance with, for example, harmful chemicals or electrical safety.

“It is the protection and safety of the consumer. The consumer can then trust those products. It is estimated that up to about 35 percent of the price of the product is to ensure that the product is made in accordance with the requirements.”

“A lot of tests have been done in Europe, where it has been seen that from there [EU:n ulkopuolelta] there are even dangerous products,” Luoto said.

The economic morning was hosted by a journalist Heidi Huotilainen.

You can watch Friday’s Economic Morning in its entirety below.