EU confirms €3 customs duty and VAT treatment for low-value imports from July 2026

30 June 2026

From 1 July 2026, the EU will remove the current customs duty exemption for goods valued at €150 or less. Instead, a temporary €3 customs duty per item will apply to low-value goods imported into the EU until 1 July 2028. The measure is intended to address the rapid growth in low-value e-commerce imports and reduce unfair competition, fraud and compliance risks linked to small parcels entering the EU duty-free.

The €3 duty will apply per item based on customs classification, not simply per parcel. This means that a single parcel containing different types of goods with different tariff codes may attract more than one €3 charge. For example, where a parcel contains products falling under two different tariff classifications, two separate €3 customs duty charges may apply.

Separately, the European Commission confirmed that sellers using the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) will not have to charge VAT on the additional €3 customs duty amounts. This gives IOSS users a small but useful advantage, as where IOSS is not used and VAT is collected at importation by postal operators or carriers, the €3 customs duty will form part of the amount on which VAT is calculated. In practice, this means customers may pay VAT on the goods and the €3 duty.

Please refer to our February article for further detail on the implementation of the new duty charge.