Europe has enacted a new import charge on small-value online purchases that previously benefited from a long-standing duty exemption, a policy change directed at e-commerce platforms that have expanded rapidly by selling very low-priced goods. The measure, which comes into effect on Wednesday, imposes a €3 fee on low-value consignments that used to enter the bloc without duties.
The charge is calculated per customs classification within a single shipment. That means a parcel containing three distinct product categories would attract a €9 bill, while a package with multiple units of the same item - for example several dresses or several toys - would be assessed a single €3 fee.
Duty exemptions for low-value imports have existed for decades; the current de minimis threshold of €150 was established in 2008. But the volume of parcels entering the European Union under that exemption has climbed sharply in recent years, rising to 5.8 billion in 2025 from 1.4 billion in 2022. European officials argue that the trading environment has changed dramatically because of the rise of e-commerce, especially from Chinese platforms.
"In a different trading world this made a lot of sense, but that world doesn’t exist anymore. It’s been turned on its head by e-commerce, especially from China," said EU lawmaker Dirk Gotink, who leads customs reform work in the European Parliament, in an interview.
The United States has already moved away from a similar exemption, ending its de minimis allowance for imports from China in May and removing the exemption for all imports at the end of August. The EU’s new charge represents a comparable tightening of the rules aimed at rebalancing competitive conditions between foreign online sellers and domestic European retailers.
Industry experts expect the fee to alter short-term shipping patterns. Derek Lossing, an e-commerce and air cargo consultant who runs Cirrus Global Advisors, anticipates that air shipments of e-commerce goods into the EU could decline by 10% to 35% in the weeks after the fees begin, a drop that would have knock-on effects for global air cargo volumes. "The question is how effective the platforms are in pivoting to other markets," he said. "When the U.S. ended de minimis, Europe was a really good alternative that platforms could shift to - but now there’s not a really clear alternative to Europe."
Lossing also suggested platforms may try to shield consumers from price increases by pressuring suppliers to absorb some of the new costs in order to protect prices and preserve profitability.
Market participants and platforms have begun adjusting. Shein, for example, has expanded warehouse capacity in Wroclaw, Poland and increased the volume of goods shipped to the EU in bulk, steps described as preparations for the change. Temu and Shein did not provide comment in response to requests.
AliExpress, operated by the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, said it will label product listings with "Price includes duties and VAT" when applicable, and for other items display a breakdown of import charges before customers complete purchases. Amazon, which introduced a low-cost service following rapid growth by Temu and Shein, said 97% of its EU shipments last year were fulfilled from warehouses inside the bloc. Amazon added that for products shipped from outside the EU, customers will be shown import charges prior to checkout.
The €3 measure is described as temporary. It is intended to be superseded by category-specific duties on July 1, 2028, when the new EU Customs Authority is scheduled to begin operations. Policymakers and market observers expect the interim fee to raise consumer prices to the extent that platforms pass on the extra costs to shoppers.
The fee is another regulatory development following recent U.S. changes to de minimis rules and represents a coordinated tightening of low-value import treatment among major markets. How platforms and their suppliers will redistribute or absorb the additional charges, and how quickly shipping patterns adjust, will determine the scale and timing of impacts on retailers, air cargo operators and consumers.
For now, the EU’s new charge marks a concrete policy response to a rapid expansion of small-value e-commerce parcels and is likely to reshape short-term logistics flows and pricing dynamics for ultra-low-priced goods sold cross-border into Europe.