The European Commission has published guidance on a new €2 Union handling fee for goods that consumers in the EU buy online from sellers outside the bloc, and says the fee is expected to start on November 1, 2026. Unlike the temporary €3 customs duty introduced in July, the handling fee applies whatever the value of the goods and has no end date.

The guidance, prepared by the Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) and dated October 5, was posted on the Commission’s customs website on October 8. It covers both charges and states that it is not a legally binding act.

Under Article 20 of the new Union Customs Code (UCC), customs authorities must collect a fixed fee per item for handling the release into free circulation of goods sold in distance sales. The guidance says the fee covers at least the costs of checking data, carrying out risk analysis, and the related infrastructure and controls, including services from the new EU Customs Authority. The amount is set at €2 by a Commission delegated act that the document describes as under scrutiny. The fee applies from the tenth day after that act enters into force and “is therefore expected to apply from 1 November 2026,” the guidance says.

How the fee is charged

  • Fixed, per item: The guidance describes the fee as a €2 fixed fee, not a percentage of value, charged per item like the €3 duty but irrespective of value. Goods in consignments worth more than €150 are also covered, as long as they were sold in a distance sale.
  • What counts as an item: The new code defines an item as one or more goods in a consignment that share the same tariff classification, description and, where required, origin. Because of IT system limits, the guidance says, the fee and the €3 duty “will automatically apply per declaration line irrespective of the quantity” in that line.
  • Declaration code: From November 1, declarants must enter TARIC document code Y126 on H1, H6 and H7 import declarations for goods sold in distance sales. Entering the code triggers the fee automatically.
  • Who pays: Responsibility falls first on the declarant, which the guidance identifies as the platform, seller, carrier or agent declaring the goods. Other persons, including the consumer, can declare goods only as a residual option.
  • VAT: The guidance treats the fee as an incidental expense that forms part of the VAT taxable amount. For goods sold through the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), no VAT is due on the fee at import, but if the fee is charged to the consumer at the moment of sale, it must be included in the IOSS VAT return.

The €3 duty already in place

Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 of February 11, 2026 removed the €150 customs duty exemption and introduced a temporary duty of €3 per item for consignments with an intrinsic value up to €150. It has applied since July 1, 2026 and runs until July 1, 2028, after which normal duty rates apply. In a June news item, the Commission illustrated the per-item rule: five T-shirts in one consignment incur €3, while one T-shirt and one watch incur €6.

The Commission said in the same item that about 5.9 billion low-value items were shipped directly to EU consumers from third countries in 2025 without customs duties, and that targeted EU-wide inspections in 2025 found more than 60% of checked products failed EU standards. From November 1, product identifiers also become mandatory for distance sales of imported goods worth up to €150, according to the guidance.

Both charges sit within the wider EU Customs Reform, which entered into force in September. In its September 21 press release, the Commission said the EU Customs Authority, based in Lille, is expected to start operations in 2027, and that the EU Customs Data Hub becomes mandatory for e-commerce consignments from July 1, 2028. “The Customs Reform is therefore not simply a technical update,” said Maroš Šefčovič, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency.

Why it matters

For non-EU sellers and marketplaces shipping directly to EU consumers, the fee adds a fixed charge on every declaration line, on top of the €3 duty for consignments up to €150, and applies to higher-value distance sales as well. Because the charge follows declaration lines rather than parcels, the number of distinct product types in an order affects the total, while extra units of the same product do not.

For carriers, customs agents and platforms that file declarations, the November 1 date brings a new declaration code and mandatory product identifiers for low-value distance sales. Sellers using the IOSS also face a VAT question if they pass the fee on to shoppers at checkout.

What to watch

The start date depends on the delegated act entering into force. The guidance says the fee will be lower from July 1, 2028 for goods sold from a customs warehouse for distance sales, and that the Commission will review the amount by delegated act before the end of the current Multiannual Financial Framework.

The caveats

The guidance is explanatory, and the document says legal provisions take precedence over its contents. The delegated act fixing the €2 amount was still described as under scrutiny when the guidance was published, and member states may issue their own national instructions.