EU €3 customs duty on small parcels: what a UK online shop pays on each order to the EU since 1 July 2026

Since 1 July 2026 the EU has charged a customs duty of €3 per item on parcels worth €150 or less sent to its consumers from outside the EU. Before that date most such parcels entered duty free. For a UK shop it lands on every order to the EU, counted per kind of product in the parcel, not per parcel.

The rule

Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 deleted the old relief for consignments up to €150 and put this in its place, in Article 2: "From 1 July 2026 until 1 July 2028, a customs duty of EUR 3 per item in a consignment the intrinsic value of which does not exceed a total of EUR 150 shall apply".

The European Commission calls it a temporary flat fee. Its notice says that after 1 July 2028 "normal customs duties will apply, depending on the type of good". Under Article 3 the Commission must assess by 1 December 2027 whether the EU's new customs system will be ready, and may propose an extension.

How items are counted

The Commission's guidance says the duty "applies per item in a consignment, based on tariff classification (not quantity)", and gives two examples:

Its Access2Markets notice adds that the €3 is charged per line on the customs declaration. On the simplified declaration for low-value parcels, known as H7, goods are classified by the first six digits of the tariff code, so goods that share those six digits can sit on one line and pay €3 once. The full declaration, H1, uses ten digits and splits them: the notice's example of three such goods pays €3 on H7 and €9 on H1.

What it does to three orders

An invented UK shop selling homeware, with prices in euros:

The sums: €3 divided by €12 is 0.25. In the second order €18 plus two at €9 is €36; we have assumed a mug and a tea towel fall under different tariff codes, so the duty is €6, and €6 divided by €36 is 0.167. In the third, €3 divided by €140 is 0.021.

A flat charge is heaviest on cheap goods and mixed baskets. The shop selling €12 mugs has a quarter of the price to find.

UK-made goods are not exempt on the usual route

The UK's trade deal with the EU does not take care of this on its own. The regulation's sixth recital describes the €3 as a single amount per item "without considering the origin of the goods". The Commission's guidance says the measure "applies equally regardless of the country of origin of the goods".

There is one stated way out. The same guidance excludes "goods benefiting from preferential trade agreements", but only "as long as the VAT has not been collected using IOSS and they are declared in H1". That means a full customs declaration and no use of the Import One-Stop Shop, which is the scheme a seller or marketplace uses to collect EU VAT at checkout. Ask your carrier or customs agent whether that route is worth its cost.

Who is billed

The Commission's answer is "the declarant of the good, i.e. seller or importer of the good", and it lists the holder of the IOSS number, the user of the "special arrangements" and their representatives. The consumer pays "only in very residual cases".

So the bill reaches whoever declares the parcel: you or your intermediary under your own IOSS number, the marketplace where it collects the EU VAT, or the post office or courier where there is no IOSS number. We did not read any carrier's or marketplace's terms on how the €3 is passed on, so ask yours in writing, and ask whether a handling charge is added.

One difference between the sources: Article 2 of the regulation names goods imported under IOSS and goods in postal consignments, while the Commission's guidance says the duty covers distance sales up to €150 "regardless of VAT scheme". We cannot say how a courier parcel outside IOSS is treated in each member state.

Two dates still to come

• 1 November 2026. Product identifiers "become mandatory" on these declarations. They have been voluntary since 1 July 2026. The notices we read do not set out the format, so ask your carrier what it will need.
• Autumn 2026. The Commission lists a "proposed Union handling fee", separate from the duty, with its "amount and date of application" still to be decided.

What to do this week

1. Export the last three months of EU orders. For each, count the kinds of product, not the units.
2. Multiply by €3. That is the duty those orders would carry now.
3. Find out who was billed for it in July, August and September: you, your IOSS intermediary, the marketplace or the customer at the door.
4. Decide where it goes. The choices are a higher EU price, a higher EU delivery charge, or a minimum order for EU customers. Run the first through our product margin calculator before you choose.
5. Show the customer the full cost before they pay. A surprise charge at the door becomes a refused parcel.
6. Hold a SKU and a six-digit tariff code against every product you ship to the EU, ahead of 1 November 2026.

The other EU requirement is product safety: our GPSR checklist covers the responsible person and the listing wording. Parcels from Great Britain to Northern Ireland follow separate arrangements that we did not read for this page. UK postage is in our guide to the Royal Mail prices from 5 October 2026.

This is general information, not customs advice.

Overlyft can set up an AI Marketplace Minder that reads each marketplace's fee and policy notices and tells the owner what a change costs on a typical order, with the date and the page it came from.