2026 EU VAT Duty and Handling Fees for eCommerce sellers

EU sellers are in for a rough ride in 2026 — and if you're still doing remote fulfilment, the numbers just changed.

eCommerce sellers deserve a break after the roller coaster of US tariffs in 2025. But the EU has its own changes coming — and they start in a matter of months.

If you're selling to EU customers, you're using one of two fulfilment models:

• EU warehouse fulfilment - you import stock in bulk, pay import duty and VAT on arrival, reclaim the VAT, then charge VAT on sales to customers, typically declared under the Union One Stop Shop (OSS).
• Remote fulfilment - you ship individual consignments directly to EU customers and either:
  • Leave the customer to pay import VAT and duty at the border
  • Use a DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) arrangement and handle it yourself, or
  • For consignments of €150 or less, use the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) to collect and remit VAT at checkout.

What's changing?

Faced with an explosion of low-value imports, much of it driven by Asian marketplaces, the EU is removing the €150 duty de minimis and introducing new handling fees. Here's the timeline:

1 July 2026 - Duty de minimis removed

Duty becomes payable on all imports into the EU regardless of value. For IOSS-registered sellers, a flat fee of €3 applies per declaration line item — note this is per item in the consignment, not per parcel. Order three products and you're looking at €9 in duty alone. For sellers not using IOSS, ad valorem duty rates based on HS codes will apply, which for many product categories will be significantly higher.

November 2026 - EU-wide customs handling fee

An EU-wide handling fee of approximately €2 per consignment will be introduced across all member states. This is a Union-wide measure, separate from — and in addition to — the duty changes above.

Some member states aren't waiting for July:

• France - €2 handling fee from 1 March 2026 (in effect now)
• Romania - 25 lei (approx. €5) from January 2026 (in effect now)

What this means for your business

If you're shipping direct to EU customers and not using IOSS, your exposure just increased significantly. The duty savings from staying below €150 disappear entirely from July. And if you are on IOSS, the €3-per-item duty is a new landed cost that needs to be built into your pricing now, not in six months.