A €5 online order can now come with €6 in customs duty.

Welcome to EU e-commerce in 2026.

Since July 1, the EU has abolished the customs-duty exemption for e-commerce shipments worth up to €150.

Instead, a temporary €3 customs duty per item now applies to low-value goods imported from outside the EU.

And “per item” has a very customs-specific meaning.

👕 5 identical T-shirts → €3

👕 1 T-shirt + ⌚ 1 watch → €6

Why? Because the charge is based on the different tariff classifications contained in the shipment — not simply the number of physical products in the box.

The rule will remain in place until July 2028, when the EU plans to move low-value e-commerce imports onto the normal customs tariff system.

And there’s another change coming: from November 1, 2026, product identifiers will become mandatory for these imports, giving customs authorities more information to trace and check individual products.

For marketplaces and brands selling inexpensive products directly into Europe, this matters.

A business model built around:

cheap product + cheap shipping + frictionless customs

can suddenly become:

cheap product + customs duty + more data requirements + more compliance.

The product didn't change.

The market-access economics did.

That’s exactly why customs rules shouldn’t be something companies look at after deciding to enter a market.

Sometimes a €3 regulatory change is enough to rewrite the entire unit economics.

#MarketAccess #Ecommerce #Customs #EU #InternationalExpansion #GlobalTrade #Expio