European Union exemption
€150 → €0
The duty-free threshold on non-EU parcels ended 1 July 2026, across all 27 member states. European Commission, 13 Nov 2025
New European Union duty
€3 / item
Temporary flat duty per tariff line on parcels valued €150 or under, in force until 1 July 2028. European Commission guidance, 8 Jun 2026
Austria's own tax
€2.40
with VAT
with VAT
National parcel tax from 1 October 2026, on top of the European Union duty, for sellers over €100 million Austrian turnover. ORF, 2026
Permanent regime
1 Jul
2028
2028
The flat €3 duty is replaced by tariff-based rates once the EU Customs Data Hub goes live. VATupdate, Jun 2026
—
days to Austria's €2 parcel tax
1 October 2026
1 October 2026
—
days to the EU-wide handling fee
expected 1 November 2026
expected 1 November 2026
2028
EU Customs Data Hub live
permanent duty regime begins
permanent duty regime begins
01 · What changed, European Union-wide, on 1 July 2026
Every parcel entering the European Union from outside it used to clear customs duty-free if its declared value was €150 or under. That exemption is gone. A temporary flat duty now applies, and it is charged per tariff line inside the parcel — not per parcel.
Before 1 July 2026
€150 or under → duty-free
Parcels from outside the European Union valued at €150 or less entered free of customs duty. Value-added tax was still due, typically collected at checkout via the Import One-Stop Shop scheme.
From 1 July 2026
€3 duty per tariff line
The exemption is abolished. A flat €3 customs duty applies per distinct tariff-classified item in the parcel, regardless of declared value, until 1 July 2028.
How the €3 duty stacksPer tariff line, not per parcel
Official example from the European Commission's own guidance: five identical T-shirts under one tariff code carry €3 total; one T-shirt plus one watch (two different tariff codes) carries €6. A parcel with several genuinely different product types is charged €3 for each one.
Who is liableThe declarant, not usually the shopper
The duty is owed by the declarant — typically the seller, the seller's Import One-Stop Shop intermediary, or their customs representative. Consumers only pay it directly in the rare case their own country offers a free consumer-facing declaration tool.
Scale of the flowImport One-Stop Shop covers most of it
Import One-Stop Shop registrations are estimated to cover around 93% of European Union e-commerce parcel flows, so the new duty is largely administered through that same scheme rather than a separate system.
02 · Austria adds its own €2 parcel tax
This is a separate, national measure — not part of the European Union reform above. It applies only to parcels delivered in Austria, layered on top of the European Union-wide duty, and only on large sellers.
Effective
1 Oct 2026
Applies to parcels delivered in Austria from that date.
Threshold
>€100M
Only sellers/platforms with over €100 million in the prior year's Austrian distance-sales turnover are liable.
Rate, with VAT
€2.40
€2 per parcel or per order (seller's choice) plus 20% standard VAT; €2.20 at the 10% reduced VAT rate for books.
Projected revenue
€280M/yr
Finance Ministry estimate, partly funding a VAT cut on basic food items from 1 July.
Who is directly liable16 companies named
Sixteen online retailers and marketplaces cross the €100 million Austrian-turnover threshold and are directly liable, including Amazon, Otto Austria, and Temu. Around 4,000 Austrian merchants selling through marketplace platforms are indirectly affected because the platform is the one attributed with the tax.
Public oppositionHandelsverband / Republik Research survey, May 2026, n≈1,067
70% of Austrians surveyed oppose the tax. 92% expect it to raise end-consumer prices. 69% believe consumers will bear most of the cost. Only 28% believe it will actually curb low-cost platforms such as Temu or Shein.
Net revenue disputeIndependent economic estimate
Against the government's €280 million gross projection, an impact analysis by GAW (Society for Applied Economic Research, Innsbruck), commissioned by the Handelsverband, estimates a net loss of €167 million once reduced tax and social-contribution income from the resulting economic contraction is factored in.
03 · What this means for shipping into Europe now
Practical changes for anyone sending parcels into the European Union from outside it, effective now or within the next few months.
Every parcel needs a customs declaration
Duty-free no longer means declaration-free. Every parcel valued €150 or under still requires its own item-level customs declaration, whether or not duty ends up being owed.
Price by tariff line, not by parcel
Get the tariff classification right for every distinct product type in a shipment — the €3 duty is charged per tariff line, so misclassifying items risks over- or under-paying.
Import One-Stop Shop data now needs to cover duty, not just VAT
Sellers already filing through Import One-Stop Shop for value-added tax must now supply the extra data needed to assess the €3 duty on the same declarations.
Mandatory product identifiers from 1 November 2026
Voluntary from 1 July 2026, product identifiers (structured product-level data for traceability and safety checks) become mandatory on qualifying consignments from 1 November 2026.
A separate EU-wide handling fee is expected from 1 November 2026
Reported at around €2 per consignment, reducible to about €0.50 for importers certified under the European Union's "Trust and Check Trader" scheme — on top of, not instead of, the €3 duty.
Consolidation reduces per-item exposure
Routing stock through an EU-based warehouse or importer-of-record, rather than shipping single items directly from a non-EU seller, can reduce how many separate €3 duty charges a shipment attracts.
Selling into Austria specifically: check the €100 million threshold
Only sellers or platforms above €100 million in Austrian distance-sales turnover owe the separate €2 national tax — most smaller sellers are not directly liable, though marketplace-attributed sellers should confirm their platform's status.
The €3 flat duty is temporary — a tariff structure follows in 2028
From 1 July 2028, once the EU Customs Data Hub is operational, the flat €3 duty is replaced by standard tariff rates grouped into simplified bands for common low-value goods.
04 · The timeline
Four dates matter for anyone shipping into Europe over the next two years.
1 Jul2026
European Union — €150 exemption ends, €3 duty begins
The duty-free threshold on non-EU parcels is abolished across all 27 member states. A temporary flat €3 duty per tariff line applies instead.
1 Oct2026
Austria — national €2 parcel tax begins
Separate from the European Union duty. Applies only to parcels delivered in Austria, only for sellers above €100 million Austrian turnover.
1 Nov2026
European Union — handling fee and mandatory product identifiers
A European Union-wide handling fee on distance-sale consignments is expected to take effect, alongside mandatory product identifiers for qualifying parcels (voluntary since 1 July 2026).
1 Jul2028
European Union — permanent regime replaces the flat duty
The EU Customs Data Hub becomes operational for e-commerce goods. The temporary €3 flat duty ends; standard tariff rates apply, grouped into simplified duty bands for common low-value goods.
About the Author
TrendsOnFire is an AI-based market intelligence platform publishing analysis on retail, technology, supply chain, people and transformation trends across Europe.
Created by Olga Bressers, a senior executive with experience in commercial & digital operations, ecommerce, omni-channel strategy, operations, programs and business transformation.