EU customs reform adopted: parcel handling fee from November, platforms become importers

What happened

On Wednesday 16 September 2026 the European Parliament gave final approval to the reform of the EU Customs Code. The Council had already given its formal consent, so the procedure is complete.

For retail, the centrepiece is a new handling fee. It applies to every item ordered from a web shop outside the EU and sent directly to an EU consumer. Member states will charge it from 1 November 2026 at the latest. The Commission sets the amount and reviews it every two years. The fee is owed by whoever owes the other customs charges on the parcel. The explicit aim is that the cost does not end up with the consumer.

The second lever concerns sellers and platforms that facilitate distance sales from non-EU countries to EU customers. They will count as importers themselves. They must be established in the EU or represented by an EU entity with AEO (Authorised Economic Operator) or trusted trader status. They are liable for data, duties and product compliance. Repeated breaches can draw fines of at least 1 and up to 6 per cent of the import value of the past twelve months.

Behind this sits a rebuild of the IT. An EU Data Hub is to replace at least 111 national customs systems. Its use will be voluntary from 2031 and mandatory from 2034. The new EU customs authority, EUCA, based in Lille, will run it. Rapporteur Dirk Gotink (EPP, NL) calls it “the biggest reform of European customs since 1968”.

Who is affected

Online merchants and marketplace sellers in Germany who have priced against direct imports from the Far East for years. And every shop that sources from non-EU countries itself or sells into the EU through a platform.

Assessment

For German online merchants, this is the most important competition news of the year. It has little to do with customs and a lot to do with pricing.

The big Far Eastern platforms never led on low manufacturing costs alone. They led because millions of individual parcels slipped past the controls. Meanwhile a merchant in Gelsenkirchen had to meet every product rule, pay every duty and cover every return himself. If platforms now count as importers under customs law and answer for compliance, part of that lead disappears. That is not protectionism. Both sides simply carry the same obligations.

Update 11 October 2026: According to the German e-commerce association bevh (8 October 2026), the flat handling fee from November is 2 euros per consignment, on top of the flat 3 euros per tariff line (bevh). The following paragraph reflects the status of 17 September.

Two points still call for a sober view. First, the decisive figure was still open when the reform was adopted. The Commission has not set the handling fee yet. Until it does, nobody can seriously calculate how much more a parcel from China will cost.

Second, the effect depends on enforcement, not on the text of the law. The data needed for enforcement only arrives with the Data Hub. That is voluntary from 2031 at the earliest and mandatory from 2034. Until then, 111 systems keep running side by side.

Anyone forecasting a jump in sales now is mistaken. The right preparation is different. Align your prices and product messaging in the fourth quarter with the fact that cheap direct imports are becoming less convenient.

What to do now

1. Check whether your own shipments are affected. If you ship directly to end customers from non-EU countries, or sell through a non-EU platform, you need to know by 1 November who owes the import charges.
2. Prepare your pricing advantage, but do not trumpet it. Delivery time, warranty, returns and product safety become strong arguments again from November. Make them visible in product texts and at checkout.
3. Watch the level of the fee. Only the Commission’s implementing act will make the reform calculable for your own price list.