EU Sets EUR 2 Handling Fee per Item on Online Imports from 1 November

European Union customs will charge a EUR 2 fee per item on goods sold online from outside the EU from 1 November 2026.

The European Commission has set a fee of EUR 2 per item on goods bought online from outside the EU, starting 1 November 2026.

The fee is called the Union handling fee. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152 fixes its amount, and it appeared in the Official Journal of the European Union on Oct. 22, 2026¹.

In short, every online sale shipped into the EU from abroad will pay customs EUR 2 for each item from November. This applies to cheap parcels and to expensive ones. It comes on top of the EUR 3 customs duty that has applied to low-value parcels since 1 July 2026².

What does the EUR 2 handling fee cover?

The Delegated Regulation has only two articles. Article 1 says the Union handling fee is EUR 2 per item¹. Article 2 says the regulation entered into force on the day of publication and applies from 1 November 2026¹.

The fee itself was created by a larger law. This is Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 of Sept. 16, 2026, which sets up a new Union Customs Code, the EU’s main customs law, and a new EU Customs Authority¹. Article 20(2) of that law creates the fee, and Article 20(10) lets the Commission set its amount¹.

The fee pays for a service. Customs collects it for handling a request to release goods for free circulation, which means clearing them for sale and use inside the EU¹. It applies only when the goods were sold in a distance sale to a customer in the EU¹.

Why did the Commission set the fee at EUR 2?

The customs law says the fee must match the approximate cost of the work customs does. That work includes checking data, risk analysis, controls and the related equipment and IT systems¹. It also includes services from the new EU Customs Authority¹.

The Commission based the amount on a first cost report for the period 2026 to 2028¹. The report estimates costs for EU countries and for the Commission in customs digital systems. It also counts the share of customs staff who clear, check and audit goods sold at a distance¹.

Some costs were left out. The report does not count control equipment paid for only from national budgets¹. It also leaves out most work by market surveillance authorities, the agencies that check product safety¹. The Commission calls its estimate moderate because it rests on careful assumptions, and it also projected future parcel volumes¹. On this basis, it found EUR 2 per item to be in line with the cost of supervising these goods¹.

Why is the EU charging online imports more?

The Commission points to the growth of online shopping from abroad. In 2025, 5.9 billion low-value items were imported into the EU, four times the number in 2022³. More than 90% of those items came from China, according to the Commission’s customs reform page³.

The Commission says this mass of small parcels has put customs under strain³. It adds that many of the products fail EU rules and standards and are unsafe for buyers³. The new customs law itself names the limited capacity of customs to handle the rising volume of online imports as a weakness⁴.

The Commission’s reform page describes the fee as a way to cover the rising costs of customs work³. Those costs come from the digital systems and staff used to release goods. They include data checks, risk analysis and document and physical checks when needed³.

Which shipments will pay the handling fee?

The fee applies to a distance sale. The customs law uses the EU’s VAT definition of the term². A distance sale is a sale where the seller ships goods from outside the EU to a customer in an EU country, and the customer is not a VAT-registered business².

The Commission’s guidance for EU countries and traders, dated Oct. 5, 2026, lists four conditions for a distance sale²:

• A business sells the goods. This includes online platforms that count as the seller under VAT law².
• The buyer is in the EU customs area. This includes places outside the EU VAT area, such as the Canary Islands, the Aland Islands and the Channel Islands².
• The goods are outside the EU at the time of the sale².
• The seller ships the goods, or someone ships them on the seller’s behalf².

Customs can spot a distance sale in the customs declaration. When the declaration has no VAT number for the import VAT, customs takes this as a sign of a distance sale². A valid Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) number, from the EU’s online VAT scheme, also shows that the goods were sold this way².

Do expensive parcels pay the EUR 2 fee too?

Yes. The fee has no value limit, unlike the EUR 3 duty². The guidance says goods in parcels worth more than EUR 150 also pay the fee, as long as they were sold at a distance².

The fee is a fixed amount. It is not a percentage of the price². A cheap item and a costly one each pay the same EUR 2 when sold online from abroad.

The fee is also permanent. The EUR 3 duty runs only until 1 July 2028, but the guidance says the handling fee has no end date². Customs will not pay it back. The guidance calls the fee non-refundable².

How are items counted for the EUR 2 fee?

The fee is charged per item, in the same way as the EUR 3 duty². For that duty, Ireland’s tax and customs agency, Revenue, explains that each distinct type of product in a package counts as one item⁵.

Revenue gives these examples for the EUR 3 duty⁵:

• A notepad, a pen and a keyring are three items.
• A silk blouse and a cotton T-shirt are two items.
• Two identical cotton T-shirts are one item.

Because the fee follows the same rule, the same parcels would pay EUR 6, EUR 4 and EUR 2 in handling fees. A parcel worth EUR 150 or less pays both charges. The three-item parcel would therefore owe EUR 9 in duty and EUR 6 in fees.

Which sales are outside the handling fee?

Some purchases do not count as distance sales. When the customer picks up the goods, the sale is not a distance sale². The same applies when the customer arranges transport without any help from the seller².

The seller does count as shipping the goods in several cases. These include when the seller hires a carrier, charges the buyer for transport, or promotes a delivery service². They also include cases where the seller is partly responsible for delivery². New means of transport, and goods supplied after installation or assembly, are outside distance sales².

Ordinary business imports are not covered. The fee applies only to distance sales to customers who are not VAT-registered businesses².

Who pays the handling fee at the border?

Under the new rules, the consumer no longer carries the duty and the paperwork. Platforms, sellers or carriers in the sale take on that role³. Non-EU online platforms and sellers are responsible for customs formalities and payments for the goods they sell into the EU³.

The customs law creates a new role, the importer for distance sales. This makes a business, not the consumer, the importer in some online sales from outside the EU⁴. That business must follow customs law and keep records showing it did so⁴.

Rule breaking has a cost. The Commission says penalties include fines, the loss of some customs benefits and even limits on access³. Customs systems are being updated too. The EU added a new tax type code, F00, for the fee in customs declarations².

When do the handling fee rules start?

The new customs law entered into force on Sept. 20, 2026². Most of it applies from Sept. 21, 2027². Some parts started early, including the definitions of distance sale and item, from Sept. 20, 2026².

The customs law says the fee applies 10 days after its amount is set by a delegated act¹. The Commission adopted the Delegated Regulation on Sept. 21, 2026, and published it on Oct. 22, 2026¹. It fixed the start date at 1 November 2026¹.

Two later dates matter. From 1 July 2028, goods sold from a customs warehouse for distance sales will pay a lower fee². The same day, the EU Customs Data Hub, a single digital system for customs data, becomes mandatory for online sales³.

What happens next with the EUR 2 fee?

The amount can change. The Commission must write a cost report every two years¹. This lets it review the fee and adjust it to match the costs customs faces¹.

The Commission will also review the amount by a new delegated act before the end of the EU’s current long-term budget². That review will set the lower fee for items sold from customs warehouses for distance sales².

The EUR 3 duty has its own timetable. The Commission must assess by Dec. 1, 2027 whether the Customs Data Hub will work by 1 July 2028². If not, it may propose to keep the temporary duty for longer².

Key points on the EU handling fee

The table below sums up the fee.

From 1 November 2026, each distinct item in an online sale from outside the EU will cost EUR 2 more at customs. For a parcel worth EUR 150 or less, the fee and the EUR 3 duty together come to EUR 5 per item.

Sources

1. ↩ Delegated regulation – EU – 2026/2152 – EN – EUR-Lex https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2152/oj/eng
2. ↩ 053e5b4e-f0be-4f20-9a23-3e3b659a6676_en https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/053e5b4e-f0be-4f20-9a23-3e3b659a6676_en?filename=Customs%20Guidance%20on%20EUR%203%20customs%20duty.pdf
3. ↩ EU Customs Reform – Taxation and Customs Union – European Commission https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/customs/eu-customs-reform_en
4. ↩ Regulation – EU – 2026/2108 – EN – EUR-Lex https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/2108/oj/eng
5. ↩ Removal of the De Minimis Relief for Low Value Consignments – 1 July 2026 https://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/individuals/relief-low-value-consignments/index.aspx