Online trade EU imposes levy on imports of cheap goods
The EU is increasing import costs in the fight against unwanted cheap imports. The member states agreed that every parcel with a value of up to 150 euros will be subject to a levy of three euros from July 2026.
12.12.2025, 13:13
SDA
The requirement agreed by the EU finance ministers at a meeting in Brussels is likely to affect online retailers such as Shein, Temu, AliExpress and Amazon. The tax is to be levied by the national customs authorities. Up to now, parcels with a value of up to 150 euros can be imported duty-free into the EU.
Levy is an interim solution
However, the new levy is only planned temporarily, as in future all goods imported into the EU will be subject to customs duties from the first euro. It is still unclear whether cheap products will become more expensive as a result. Theoretically, producers or importers could also bear the additional costs.
Online trade has led to an exponential increase in deliveries of small, low-value packages of goods to the EU in recent years. According to the EU Commission, around twelve million parcels arrived in the EU every day in 2024 - significantly more than in the two previous years.
In November, the EU member states agreed to abolish the current 150-euro exemption limit. However, the new regulation supported by the German government will only apply from 2028, when a digital platform for processing and monitoring will also be launched. The abolition of the exemption limit is intended to ensure that all retailers - regardless of their location - have the same competitive conditions.
Fight against fraud
The new regulations are also intended to tackle fraud: According to the European Commission, it is estimated that 65 percent of parcels sent to the EU are deliberately under-declared in the customs declaration in order to claim the exemption. According to the authority, this has a detrimental effect on EU companies that cannot compete with the correspondingly lower sales prices - especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
In addition, the exemption is an incentive for importers to split larger orders into smaller packages when shipping to the EU, according to the Commission. This further contributes to an uneven playing field for European companies and also causes packaging waste, among other things.
