Since 1 July, the European Commission has been applying a temporary €3 customs handling duty on each type of low-value item (worth up to €150) ordered online from outside the EU and shipped directly to consumers. The measure, which runs until 1 July 2028, is designed to create fairer competition for European businesses and help cover the administrative costs of processing the surge in low-value imports.
The announcement quickly sparked debate on social media, with many users claiming that shoppers will ultimately foot the bill. In a post on X, the Commission stated that the duty is charged to e-commerce platforms, not directly to consumers. A spokesperson told Euronews' fact-checking team, The Cube, that “consumers buying online are not legally responsible for paying the duty.” However, they added that the Commission “cannot speak for sellers or platforms on how they will absorb this cost.”
Who Actually Bears the Cost?
Experts say that in practice, the additional expense often ends up with the consumer. Olivia Brown, a policy officer at the consumer organisation Euroconsumers, explained that businesses rarely absorb extra costs entirely. “In reality, what we see is that when a cost is added anywhere in the supply chain, it very rarely just disappears into a company's margin. It often ends up being reflected in the price consumers pay,” she said.
To test the claim, The Cube ordered a product on Amazon from outside the EU for delivery to Belgium. At checkout, the platform applied a €3 “import charges” fee linked to the new customs duty. The duty is not charged per order but per type of goods, based on its customs tariff classification. For example, a customer ordering two T-shirts, a phone, and a watch could face the €3 duty three times — once for each tariff category — bringing total import charges to €9, on top of VAT.
Platforms Adapt by Using European Warehouses
Some platforms are limiting the impact by shipping products from warehouses already located within the EU. In those cases, the €3 duty does not apply because the goods are no longer entering the EU customs territory directly from outside the bloc. In 2025, 97% of products ordered on Amazon through its EU stores were dispatched from within the EU, thus avoiding the new levy.
China tech analyst Ed Sander told The Cube that companies such as Temu had been preparing for the change well before it came into force. “Temu has been preparing for this for quite a long time. As early as 2024, it started encouraging merchants to store goods in European warehouses, with sellers taking responsibility for the logistics,” Sander said. “Not every merchant wanted to do that because it ties up capital and creates inventory risks if products do not sell. So Temu also started stocking goods itself in local warehouses.”
According to Sander, Temu’s goal was for around 80% of the goods sold in Europe to be stored in local warehouses by the end of 2025. “If goods are stored in local warehouses, they are imported in bulk by sea rather than shipped individually by air directly to consumers. That means they are imported at wholesale values rather than the retail value of individual parcels, significantly reducing the costs associated with direct-to-consumer imports,” he explained.
Regardless of who is legally responsible for paying the duty, Sander believes consumers are still likely to bear at least part of the additional cost. “Ultimately, consumers always end up paying. Either they pay the import duty directly, or sellers build the extra cost into their prices. In some cases, platforms may share the cost between themselves, merchants and consumers, but consumers still end up paying at least part of it,” he said.
The new duty is part of a broader EU customs reform that aims to modernise how the bloc handles imports. While the Commission’s intention is to level the playing field for European businesses, the practical effect for shoppers may be higher prices on goods from outside the EU — unless platforms continue to shift their logistics to warehouses within the bloc.
