The European Union (EU) will begin on July 1 to charge a fee of three euros on packages of up to 150 euros purchased outside the bloca measure that seeks to stem the avalanche of cheap imports that enter the European market, especially from China, through online platforms such as Temu, Shein or AliExpress.
Electronic commerce has triggered the arrival of these low-value packages that, Until now, they were exempt from tariffs, so European customs receive 15 million of them every daya volume that makes it difficult to control compliance with European standards and combat fraud.
Three euros per type of product
In practice, the EU will apply a charge of three euros for each type of product that comes in the package. Thus, if it contains a pair of pants and twenty t-shirts, six euros will be charged, while if it includes a pair of pants, a t-shirt and a cap, the surcharge will be nine euros, for example.
Those responsible for paying these amounts to the treasury will be the online sales platforms themselves or the companies that import the products, although these could affect the consumer.
The BEUC consumer organization explains that these platforms could reflect this cost by increasing their sales prices, without needing to specify how much the rate corresponds to, but they remember that, in any case, are obliged to inform the consumer of the final purchase price before payment, to avoid surprise charges when you receive the products.
In this sense, they warn that courier companies or postal services cannot charge the fee to the recipients of the packages.
In the past, as a result of other tax changes, there were cases in which these companies sent an invoice to the consumer if they could not identify the person responsible for the tax, something that is not allowed, according to BEUC’s head of International Affairs, Léa Auffret.
“We are going to monitor the situation,” said Auffret, who stressed that Only in “residual” cases will the consumer be directly responsible for the fee.
Avalanche of Chinese shipments
The rate will be applied temporarily, until July 1, 2028. when the most extensive reform of EU customs will come into force, which will eliminate the exemption from customs duties that packages of less than 150 euros have benefited from since the 1980s and will begin to impose tariffs on them depending on their content.
The reform was approved in November of last year, but the EU governments did not want to wait three years to address a problem they consider urgent, Therefore, in December they adopted this temporary rate.
The volume of these cheap shipments has quadrupled since 2022up to 5.9 billion packages in 2025. These represent 98% of all those that enter the EU through electronic commerce, but only 2% of the value of imports, since, on average, they do not reach nine euros, according to data from the European Commission.
93% come from China, well above the 2% in the United Kingdom and 1% in the United States. The Community Executive attributes this increase to the “exponential” growth of online commerce, in particular Temu and Shein, which have won millions of consumers in the EU thanks to “pervasive online advertising, low prices and ultra-fast shipping.”
This massive arrival of packages directly to the consumer increases the risk of counterfeit or unsafe products entering and distorts competition with European manufacturers, that they must respect community rules and pay tariffs when they import large quantities.
In addition, it harms the environment and encourages fraud, according to the community authorities and the European industry, which have long been demanding measures.
Starting in the fall, a new “handling fee” will be added to the three-euro fee for all packages ordered from countries outside the EU that reach the consumer directly. Its amount must still be decided by the European Commission, which had initially suggested setting it at two euros.