Login

|

Register

Expandly Blog

EU Ends €150 Customs Exemption – €3 Flat-Rate Duty Confirmed

The 150 euro de minimis exemption ends on 1 July 2026, and the duty applies per HS6 code on every parcel regardless of declared value.

In This Article

01What changes on 1 July
02How the €3 duty is calculated
03The November handling fee deadline
04Why EU fulfillment avoids exposure
05What to do before July

Key Takeaways

►€3 duty per HS6 code from 1 July
►Combined exposure reaches €5 per code by November
►EU warehouse stock avoids per-order customs cost
►IOSS covers VAT, not the new customs duty

From 1 July 2026, every parcel entering the EU carries a €3 flat-rate customs duty per unique HS6 code, regardless of declared value. The €150 de minimis exemption that underpinned direct-from-US and direct-from-China shipping models is gone. For US brands still running EU sales from US warehouses, the landed cost equation changes materially in under three months.

5.8Bparcels entered the EU annually before the exemption ended, up 26% in the years preceding the reform

The EU Council agreed the change on 12 December 2025, and 1 July 2026 is confirmed across multiple authoritative sources including Avalara, VATCalc and Bird and Bird. The €3 duty applies per unique HS6 commodity code per parcel, not per item and not per shipment value. A single parcel containing products across three HS6 codes attracts three separate €3 charges. A €2 handling fee per HS6 code follows, with an outer deadline of 1 November 2026, bringing the combined maximum exposure to €5 per HS6 code.

This is a transitional regime. The permanent arrangement, full tariffs processed through the EU Customs Data Hub, is expected from around 2028. The flat-rate mechanism is an administrative bridge designed to stay manageable while EU customs infrastructure scales. For brands with EU-based fulfillment there is no change per order. The duty applies at the point of import, and goods stored in EU warehouses ship domestically to EU consumers without extra customs cost on each order.

  • €3 duty applies per unique HS6 code on every EU-bound B2C parcel from 1 July 2026, calculated per code, not per parcel or per item value
  • €2 handling fee per HS6 code follows by 1 November 2026, taking combined exposure to €5 per HS6 code per parcel
  • Full tariff regime via the EU Customs Data Hub replaces the flat-rate from around 2028
  • IOSS registration remains mandatory for VAT on imports below €150 but does not remove the new customs duty obligation
  • Brands with EU warehouse stock are unaffected per order. The duty is paid once on the bulk import, not on every consumer shipment

For brands modeling EU expansion, this makes the financial case for local stock easy to quantify. Goods held in Expandly's Netherlands warehouse enter the EU as a single bulk import, so the customs overhead is paid once rather than repeated across every consumer order from July onward.

Expandly helps US ecommerce brands expand into Europe — compliance, marketplaces and fulfilment, all handled. We’ve supported 2,000+ brands make the move.

Find out more

The bigger picture

What the customs reform means for EU sellers

The €150 exemption was the structural subsidy behind low-cost cross-border shipping into Europe, and removing it rebalances the economics in favor of brands that hold stock inside the EU. For a US brand, the case for an EU warehouse moves from operational preference to margin arithmetic, because every parcel shipped from outside now carries duty per HS6 code. Expandly's compliance-first onboarding runs product compliance and VAT setup in parallel from day one, then sequences IOSS registration, marketplace setup and EU-local fulfillment so stock is in market before 1 July. Acting now reduces both the per-order duty drag and the risk of mispriced landed costs once the handling fee lands in November.

  • IOSS covers VAT on sub-€150 imports but does not remove the customs duty. Both obligations apply independently from 1 July
  • Goods held in Expandly's Netherlands warehouse enter the EU as a single bulk import, removing per-order customs exposure on every EU consumer shipment
  • Audit the HS6 code count across your SKU mix before July. Fewer codes per parcel directly lowers duty exposure

European Ecommerce Market

European ecommerce is projected at $895 billion in 2026, growing around 7.7% a year toward $1 trillion by 2028. For US brands, the EU is the most commercially significant international opportunity, and the customs reform makes EU-local operations the most defensible way in.

$895B

projected EU ecommerce revenue in 2026 (Statista / Profitero, 2026)

EU VAT and Customs

Any brand shipping B2C to EU consumers must register for VAT across target markets or use IOSS. From July 2026, IOSS does not remove the €3 customs duty per HS6 code, so both obligations run in parallel and accurate HS classification directly affects duty exposure.

27

EU member states where customs and VAT obligations apply from July 2026

Compliance-First Onboarding

Product compliance and VAT setup run in parallel from day one. From there, VAT registration, marketplace setup and EU-local fulfilment follow in the right order.

2,000+

brands expanded with Expandly

If this sounds like your world,
let's talk.

Expandly helps US ecommerce brands expand into Europe — compliance, marketplaces and fulfilment, all handled.

Self-Serve

  • £1,150/month
  • Platform-led with email support
  • Best for: $1M–$5M brands

Guided

  • £3,000/month
  • Dedicated Account Manager
  • Best for: $5M–$20M brands

VIP

  • £5,000/month
  • Dedicated VIP Consultant
  • Best for: $20M–$50M+ brands
See full pricing and what's included