This is being described as a temporary measure because of unfair competition for EU sellers, health and safety risks for consumers and high levels of fraud and environmental concerns as outlined here:

Customs: Council agrees to levy customs duty on small parcels as of 1 July 2026 - Consilium

The fixed rate from 1st July 2026 is 3 euros per consignment for consignments valued at 150 euros or less, and it will be a fixed rate of duty applied at the time of import.

That rate applies to all non-EU sellers selling via E-commerce into the EU when you are registered for the IOSS (Import One Stop Shop).

The EU Commission also confirmed in its statement that it will assess whether this should be extended to non-registered IOSS traders.

While €3 per commodity code may appear minimal, cumulative costs can be significant for high-volume importers.

That means if you are importing one commodity code, you would pay €3; if you are importing 99 individual commodity codes on the same declaration, you would pay €297 in duty for that consignment.

Multiply this by five shipments per week, and you could, for example, be looking at over 5k Euros per month in duty payments that were not required previously.

Some of you may be aware that a transitional measure will be in place. This was discussed and published in November; however, it was not confirmed until now:

 Customs: Council takes action to tackle the influx of small parcels - Consilium

There is already a discussion within the European Union about implementing a handling fee for parcels imported into the EU. This €3 duty, due on 1st July 2026, is separate from the handling fee, which is still being finalised.

Who would this affect?

This will affect any e-commerce business that is a non-EU seller using IOSS. That could lead to an increase in operating costs, an increase in the potential cost of goods, and an increase in the actual cost of importing goods into the EU.

This will require a Customs declaration to facilitate item-level information. Would further information be needed beyond the reduced dataset? Would there be an additional charge from a third party, and how would this be actioned?

Ultimately, however, this could affect the final consumer in the EU, as a rise in costs for the UK E-commerce business could be passed on to the customer. Or could this be absorbed by the UK seller of the goods?

What about the supply chains that are already in place? How is the current documentation actioned? Would you need to speak with the distributor of your goods?  Would a third party pay the duty first?

All questions that need to be answered between now and the 1st of July 2026: this is not just a Christmas Tax.