The Council of Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Union decided last week to eliminate, starting in 2026, the customs duty exemption for goods with a value of less than 150 euros coming from third countries. The European Commission announced that it will work on a “temporary” solution to collect customs duties on packages from e-commerce next year, before the creation of the EU Customs Agency and the EU Data Hub, scheduled for 2028.
“This agreement, together with the position adopted by the Council in its June 2025 mandate to charge an e-commerce management fee starting in November 2026, constitutes a fundamental step towards the modernization and simplification of EU customs operations, supporting fair competition and a level playing field in retail and e-commerce,” highlights the European Commission in a statement, a measure intended to address the proliferation of packages from platforms like Temu or Shein.
Currently, packages with a value of less than 150 euros sent from a third country to a consumer in the EU are exempt from paying customs duties, although they are subject to VAT and customs declarations. However, the EC explains that “given the evolution of the e-commerce model, this exemption is no longer justified and creates unfair competition,” and the elimination of the threshold aims to “balance e-commerce and traditional retail.”
The measure will be accompanied by a “simple and temporary” solution for calculating customs duties during the transitional period, until mid-2028, when the EU Data Hub provides the functionalities to calculate customs duties on e-commerce transactions.
