EU adds €2 handling fee on non-EU parcels from 1 November, on top of €3 duty

What changes on 1 November

From Sunday, 1 November 2026, online purchases from outside the European Union will carry a new Union Handling Fee of €2 plus VAT, according to the Portuguese postal operator CTT, which cites regulation 2026/2108. The charge will sit on top of a €3 customs duty that has applied since 1 July 2026 to parcels worth up to €150. Before that date those small consignments were exempt from customs duty, which the European Commission says put retailers importing similar goods in bulk at a disadvantage. The handling fee is meant to cover the cost of processing imports, including checking submitted data, running risk analyses and, where needed, inspecting goods.

How the charge is counted

Sources disagree on the unit the €2 fee applies to. Focus and Libertatea describe it as charged per article, while El Periódico, citing the Spanish consumer group OCU, says both the €2 and €3 charges apply per product category regardless of how many units are bought. CTT describes the handling fee as applying per type of article or content. Focus gives a worked example: a T-shirt and a hair clip would each attract €3 duty and €2 handling, totalling €10 in additional charges, while five T-shirts in one parcel would attract the €3 duty only once.

Romania plans to scrap its own charge

Romania's Ministry of Finance has published a draft emergency ordinance that would remove the national parcel fee of 25 lei, about €5, from 1 November 2026, as reported by Libertatea citing Profit.ro. The fee was introduced on 1 January 2026 to discourage splitting deliveries into small parcels from outside the EU, and the ministry says it would become redundant once the European charges apply. The ministry put the case in these terms:

“the elimination, starting 1 November 2026, of the national logistics fee is required, in order to ensure the national framework is consistent with European regulations.”

Until 31 October 2026 the 25-lei charge still applies to parcels delivered to recipients. Under the draft, amounts paid after that date would be returned to senders within 30 days of the parcels being handed over.

Revenue and market impact

Reuters, citing an internal European Commission document, reports that the fees could bring about €6 billion a year to the EU budget in 2028-2034, an estimate that assumes fewer low-value parcels as retailers adapt. In 2025 about 5.8 billion parcels worth less than €150 entered the EU, a rise of 26% on the year before, and the Commission believes declared values were often below real values to avoid duties. The United States ended its duty exemption for online orders in 2025, a step the EU measures follow. Temu's owner PDD Holdings said in August that the measure would have a "considerable impact" on some parts of its business, without giving figures. Shein earns about a third of its revenue in Europe, and its sales there had already fallen before the duties because of higher prices and lower advertising spending.

Lawmakers and shoppers

Dirk Gotink, the MEP coordinating EU customs reform, said the €2 fee targets an extremely toxic business model built on low-value, non-compliant imports from China. He argued that the new revenue would give European customs authorities the resources needed to protect the single market effectively. The Spanish consumer group OCU advises shoppers to check the final price before completing an order, because duties and fees may or may not be included in the amount a platform displays. If a seller says duties are already included, OCU says they should not be charged again on delivery, and it recommends keeping invoices and order confirmations. If a courier asks for extra money on arrival, OCU recommends requesting a detailed breakdown, and it notes these charges differ from administrative fees that companies may apply. CTT warns that parcels arriving in Portugal without product identification data may be returned.