The European Union has decided that the flood of cheap packages landing on its doorstep needs a toll booth. Starting July 1, 2026, every low-value consignment worth €150 or less entering the EU from outside the bloc will be hit with a flat €3 customs duty, effectively killing the de minimis exemption that let these parcels slide through duty-free.
The targets here are about as subtle as a neon sign: Temu, Shein, and AliExpress, the Chinese e-commerce juggernauts that have turned Europe into one of their fastest-growing markets by shipping an almost incomprehensible volume of ultra-cheap goods directly to consumers.
The numbers behind the crackdown
An estimated 4.6 billion low-value parcels were projected to enter the EU in 2024. More than 90% of them originated from China.
The old system was straightforward: if your package was worth €150 or less, it crossed into the EU without any customs duties. This was originally designed to reduce paperwork on insignificant shipments, the kind of rule that made sense when cross-border e-commerce was a niche hobby rather than a continental-scale logistics operation.
