EU slaps €3 customs fee on sub-€150 online parcels, dealing blow to Shein, Temu and AliExpress

The new fee

As of Wednesday, any parcel worth less than €150 entering the European Union from a non-EU country is subject to a flat €3 customs charge per tariff classification. The fee applies to each distinct product category inside the shipment: a parcel containing trousers and a watch would cost €6, while one holding trousers, a shirt and a watch would cost €9. Identical items in the same category (for instance, five t-shirts) incur just one charge.

The move immediately affects platforms such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress, which relied on the de minimis exemption to send huge volumes directly to European consumers without customs costs.

“The exemption was abused and misused on an industrial scale to create a competitive advantage at the expense of EU businesses.”

Background and response

The exemption, with a threshold raised to €150 in 2008, was designed for a different trading era. However, the number of low-value e-commerce parcels entering the bloc surged from 1.4 billion in 2022 to 5.8 billion in 2025, with more than 90% originating in China. Brussels says customs authorities are swamped, handling between 12 million and 16 million such parcels a day, and that inspections last year found over 60% of sampled cosmetics and personal protective equipment did not meet EU safety and quality rules.

The United States already ended its own de minimis exemption for Chinese imports in May and will drop it for all origins by the end of August.

European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said the status quo was unsustainable. He noted that China’s exports to the EU kept rising while the EU’s market share in China kept shrinking.

Consumer impact

Legally the €3 charge must be settled by the declarant (the platform, seller or freight forwarder), not by the consumer at delivery. However, consumer groups say the cost is likely to be passed on. BEUC, the European consumer umbrella, warned that "consumers could end up bearing the cost indirectly, either through higher prices, surprise charges or both."

In Portugal, consumer association Deco Proteste stressed that the fee should appear in the checkout total before purchase, and the Portuguese postal service CTT alerted that orders placed before 1 July but arriving at customs after that date will still attract the new charge. Deco also warned of fraud risk, urging buyers to verify any request for a payment before collecting a parcel.

“Alertamos todos os consumidores que, caso recebam mensagens a pedir valores para levantar as encomendas, confirmem se têm alguma encomenda em processo de desalfandegamento e, antes de efetuar qualquer pagamento, verifiquem que quem está a pedir esse valor é legítimo.”

Logistics challenges

E-commerce air cargo consultant Derek Lossing expects EU-bound shipments to drop by 10% to 35% in the coming weeks, with repercussions for global air freight. He noted that platforms may push suppliers to absorb some costs to shield consumers, but there is no obvious alternative market now that both the US and the EU have clamped down.

Spanish logistics federation UNO called for an urgent, deep customs reform, warning that the current system is not equipped to handle the daily flood of low-cost parcels. It demanded fully digital, interconnected clearance procedures, simplified tariff classification, and a transitional period to avoid bottlenecks.

20221.4

20255.8

2022

1.4 billions of parcels

2025

5.8 billions of parcels

Data from the article text

Sector reactions and next steps

The Catalan fashion cluster MODACC welcomed the fee as a fairer competitive framework. Shein has been expanding its warehouse in Wrocław, Poland, and shipping more products to the EU in bulk. Neither Shein nor Temu responded to requests for comment.

The €3 per category charge is an interim measure. It will remain in force until 1 July 2028, when a new EU customs data hub is scheduled to go live, after which all imports will be subject to regular customs duties based on their content.