A new tax on small parcels imported into the European Union from non-EU countries is expected to enter into force in November 2026. A step forward came on 3 September with the Council of the European Union’s approval of the customs reform, which now moves to the European Parliament before publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The text states that a tax on small consignments must be introduced by 1 November 2026 to cover the rising costs borne by customs administrations. The amount will be set by the European Commission before member states begin applying it. The obligations will fall on third-country sales platforms, distance sellers, declarants and postal and express operators handling inbound flows.
The new charge, known as a handling fee, will be added to the flat-rate duty of three euros that entered into force on 1 July 2026, deriving from Council Regulation 2026/382 of 11 February. This measure abolished the customs duty exemption for consignments worth up to 150 euros and will remain in force until 1 July 2028. The two measures have a different basis for calculation: the duty already in force applies to each category of item contained in the parcel, identified by its respective tariff subheading, while the forthcoming handling fee will apply to the shipment as a whole, regardless of the number of items it contains.
A second information requirement is also linked to the same date of 1 November. Delegated Regulation 2026/1022, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 1 July and amending Delegated Regulation 2015/2446, makes it mandatory to include product identifiers, or PIDs, in declarations relating to distance sales of imported goods destined for consumers. This information, which has already been optional since 1 July, must be entered on each declaration line and includes the code assigned by the seller, the code assigned by the manufacturer and, where available, a standard identifier such as GTIN, EAN or UPC. Shipments destined for economic operators are excluded.
The updated code also shifts the centre of responsibility. Third-country e-commerce platforms shipping into the Union, rather than final consumers, are regarded as the importers of the goods and are therefore required to complete all customs formalities and pay the duties due. Those breaching the obligations risk financial penalties which, in the most serious cases, can reach 6% of the annual value of goods imported by the company in the previous year, in addition to the withdrawal of any customs privileges and restrictions on access to online platforms.
The reform approved by the Council also has an institutional dimension, as it establishes a decentralised agency, the European Union Customs Authority, based in Lille and expected to become operational in 2027. It will analyse data from the new digital customs hub, define priority control areas and risk criteria, and coordinate customs-related crisis management. Use of the digital hub will become mandatory for e-commerce companies on 1 July 2028 and for all operators from 1 March 2034. A new category of trusted and certified operators will also be created, allowing goods to be released into circulation without active customs intervention, subject to requirements on transparency over flows.
Italy is also due to introduce a third levy on small non-EU parcels, introduced by Law 199/2025, which established an administrative contribution of two euros for each consignment with a declared value of no more than 150 euros from third countries. The charge is collected by the Agenzia delle Dogane (Customs and Monopolies Agency) at the time of final importation and is due regardless of the commercial nature of the transaction. Its start date, originally set for 1 January 2026, has been postponed three times and is now 1 October. The Economy Minister told Parliament that the contribution will be applied on top of the EU duty, with no mechanism to offset one levy against the other.
The postponements were caused by protests from logistics associations. Confetra (Italian General Confederation of Transport and Logistics) has called for its immediate cancellation to protect the national logistics sector, while Confcommercio (Italian General Confederation of Enterprises, Professions and Self-Employment), although viewing the measure as a concrete step against unfair competition, fears the domestic levy could have a counterproductive effect. Assonime (Association of Italian Joint Stock Companies) has taken a more detailed position, questioning the compatibility of the contribution with EU law in circular 2 of 16 February 2026 and warning that a non-harmonised levy affects operators’ logistics and distribution choices, encouraging the diversion of traffic to countries that do not apply it. Italy, however, does not appear to be isolated: Romania has introduced a national charge of five euros, while France, Belgium and the Netherlands are assessing similar instruments.
For the supply chain, the decisive factor is the relationship between the fixed import cost and the value of the order. A 15-euro consignment that will pay three euros in duty, two euros in national contribution and an EU charge that has yet to be quantified will face a customs burden of more than 30% of the value of the goods, excluding VAT and transport. As a result, for products with a very low unit price, direct shipping from Asia to the individual customer loses much of the advantage that has made it the dominant model over the past five years, while for lightweight, distinctive or high-margin products it may remain economically sustainable even with the additional burden.
The likely response from e-commerce platforms is a consolidation of flows, replacing the shipment of a single parcel into the Union with a container, air or road shipment involving centralised customs clearance with a single declaration, a customs warehouse or distribution warehouse in the Union, and domestic and intra-European delivery from EU stocks. This model therefore shifts non-EU flows towards logistics platforms, line-haul transport and European parcel distribution networks, with expected concentration at airport, postal and road hubs already connected to the main consumer basins.
This creates a contradictory situation for express couriers and postal operators. On the one hand, volumes of cross-border micro-shipments will decline, but on the other, revenue linked to IT requirements, exception management, document checks and contractual responsibility for data accuracy will increase. In addition, the PID requirement will make it necessary to track identifiers along the entire supply chain, from the seller’s catalogue to the declarant, and to establish procedures for missing, inconsistent or unverifiable codes, because after 1 November an incomplete declaration will lead to rejection and the blocking of goods at the border.
The new situation will favour larger structures. Major platforms and integrators with integrated customs systems will be able to amortise IT adjustments over high volumes, while small non-EU sellers and operators whose competitiveness is based on shipping individual items will be more exposed. As for the effectiveness of controls, product identifiers will link a non-compliant item to all shipments carrying the same code, but they will not guarantee the authenticity of the declared data. Generic goods descriptions, artificial splitting of consignments, undervaluation and the diversion of flows through third-country hubs will remain practices that national customs authorities will have to detect using coordinated criteria and interoperable data.
And it will not be a simple task, given the scale of the phenomenon. In 2025, customs authorities in EU countries handled about 6 billion e-commerce parcels and more than 1.5 billion traditional trade items, collecting almost 31 billion euros in duties through 2,200 offices and 84,000 officials. More than 90% of the e-commerce parcels arriving in the Union came from China. Low-value items shipped directly to European consumers totalled 5.9 billion, up 26% on 2024, and in targeted checks carried out last year on toys, cosmetics, small electronic goods, personal protective equipment and food supplements, more than 60% of the products inspected were found not to comply with EU requirements because of missing labels, absent safety documentation or banned ingredients.
M.L.
