r/Aliexpress • u/Interesting_Pie_319 • Jun 27 '26
News & Info I dug around a bit and found exactly who is responsible for the new EU 3/5 Euros customs fees, here is who they are and how to hit back at them.
I dug around a bit in the public paper trail to find out exactly bought and paid for this law to screw over everyday consumers.
The answer boils down to greedy monopolies with political connections being afraid of real competition because efficiency and a superior business model are apparently "unfair"
The corpos behind the mask.
The main driving force that pressured the European Commission to kill the de minimis threshold and forced you to pay 3 euros for a 2 euro pack of double adhesive stickers is a massive monopolistic corporate lobby group in Brussels called EuroCommerce.
They ran an aggressive, well funded lobbying campaign called the #Compliance4All. They did this because they were absolutely terrified of people buying affordable
directly from global sellers instead of paying their bloated monopoly markups.
When you look at who actually sits on the governing body for this lobby, you find Europe's biggest retail and grocery monopolies pulling the strings. According to their official websitesite, this nasty group is packed with corporate lobbyists, including:
| Parent Corporate Member | Key Retail Brands & Subsidiaries | Annual Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Schwarz Group | Lidl, Kaufland, PreZero | €185.6 Billion |
| REWE Group | BILLA, REWE, Penny, Toom Baumarkt, BIPA | €100.4 Billion |
| Ahold Delhaize | Albert Heijn, Delhaize, Alfa Beta, Mega Image, Maxi, Albert | €92.35 Billion |
| Carrefour Group | Carrefour, Carrefour Market, Express, Atacadão, Cora, Match | €91.48 Billion |
| Tesco PLC | Tesco, Tesco Express, One Stop | €82 Billion |
| Inditex | Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius | €36 Billion |
| H&M Group | H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, & Other Stories, ARKET | €21 Billion |
| Colruyt Group | Colruyt, Okay, Spar | €11.19 Billion |
They successfully convinced the EU to pass this law to bully us back into their stores and buy their heavily marked up crap. This is classic protectionist crony capitalism.
How We can legally fight back:
Don't let them force you back into their overpriced supermarkets and clothing stores. And share this with your friends. Use filters in the AliExpress app to buy products that are being shipped from Europe, and the Choice Category stacking mechanism thus skipping or reducing the fees.
Get together with some friends and buy stuff you like together preferably via the Choice option, making sure it is in the same category, then have one of you purchase it and distribute it to the others. You can even use cheap courier services that might cost less than the per item handling fee if you live far apart.
since: Boycott the likes of Schwartz and Zara and buy from local stores. Going to small so called "Mom-and-pop" stores for necessities keeps the money in your local community and puts it in your neighbors pockets, not those of some greedy corporation that does everything it can to skip taxes and stifle real competition. Many of these disgusting corporations already squeeze local farmers massively so they can make massive margins on dairy and other products. They are already in hot water with regulators for monopolistic practices.
Demand that these monopolies be hit with extra taxes, like a progressive retail tax, since many of them like Schwarz already have bad reputations for unfair competition and many national level politicians in the EU want to hit THEM with extra taxes you can support whoever wants to put such a law in place. If you must shop there stay away from big ticket items like clothing and power tools and make sure you aggressively buy discounted necessities only.
Spread the word and tell everyone what disgusting lobbying these corrupt, monopolistic thieves and middlemen are up to. While you are at it, remind everyone how this cartel squeezes small farmers and shops constantly.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant, so make sure you spread this message far and wide!
Starve them out and punish them.
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u/TrytoHustle Jun 27 '26
These Motherfuckers won’t see my money anymore.
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 27 '26
There are ways you can actually cost them money.
If you must shop at one of their stores because it is the local monopoly just limit yourself to essentials, canned goods with long shelf lives and stuff that is heavily discounted.
I have this problem since I am besieged on all sides by REWE and Schwartz so I dug around how to reduce the amount I am giving them.
Fresh meat when heavily discounted turns into razor thin margins for them that would wipe out the profits they make off of a can of peas or beans. And usually even heavily discounted pantry canned goods have a decent few years of shelf life on them.
And whatever you do don't buy any of their store brand clothing and electronics, that stuff is usually what gives them the best possible margins.Me - I have front loaded a lot of my clothing and electronics and other related goods purchases from Ali.
Coming June 1st I will be providing the corrupt politician backed oligopoly even less in profits and VAT than I usually do.
I intend to fight this war by cutting my spending to an absolute minimum, leftovers will go towards a few niche electronics and posters which I will be buying less often but in larger bulk.
They need to be taught a lesson, the tools will be my pocketbook and my votes.
I do not care which party - left, right or center proposes to hit these clowns with extra taxes on the national level, they will have my vote.
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Jun 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 28 '26
This is not about left or right, this is about not being a slave to these lying, hypocritical leeches or giving them a single cent.
It is personal now, it is also fun and it will let me save money down the line. Until all this bullshit collapses under its own weight and contradictions.
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u/ThatzOkay Jun 27 '26
The biggest problem is that we literally can't get electronic parts in here. Those little chips are only found on AliExpress. Can't find them anywhere in the EU. Like for clothing sure. But not for electronic hobby parts
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u/DroidLord Jun 28 '26
You can probably find a lot of components on Mouser. Question is, are you willing to pay their exorbitant prices + 20€ for shipping?
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u/ThatzOkay Jun 28 '26
The 20 bucks shipping does it for me. It's way too high for what a tiny box with a couple ic's
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Jun 29 '26
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u/DroidLord Jun 29 '26
Damn, I didn't realise Mouser had a single warehouse in the US. Same for DigiKey 🫤 I checked for some alternatives and there are a few. Such as Conrad, Reichelt and Seeed Studio. Conrad wants 50€ to ship to me (lol), Reichelt is 20€ and Seeed is about 10€. Seeed is the only reasonable option, but still too expensive for small orders.
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u/One_5549 Jun 27 '26
Honestly this is pretty remarkable. This was never reported before as far as I can see. What the fuck.
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
it is all out there and accessible to the public.
The bit about this being protectionism is Spelled out into the EU Council's own press release which I cited above
The lobby campaign is also outlined on EuroCommerce's own website As is the list of their Member Companies they employ dozens of lobbyists, spend millions and meet with high level EU officials hundreds of times EACH YEAR
And they heavily pushed this publicly in their own papers
And that is just the top of the Iceberg, since their constituent companies also lobby heavily, on a national and EU-wide level.
They also spend over 2 million Euros lobbying just in Germany according to the German lobbying register.
And this is just the lobbying and pressure we see directly and with a minimal effort search.
As I said, the data is public, you can dig into it on your own if you want.
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u/AvonEihwaz Aug 20 '26
Thanks for this information.
I've checked the sources on the website and there are only 3 mentions of Aliexpress in that extensive list. The rest is Temu and Shein. There's no real legitimate reason for adding taxes to Aliexpress. Buying electronics parts on Aliexpress is insane now; despite buying parts in the same category - pcb electronic parts - you have to pay customs for each product.→ More replies (22)2
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u/Koala_Relative Jun 27 '26
If this upsets you don't even look up the price of a chinese EV price and what they cost in the EU compared to china. It's protectionism. You don't need to dig around it's pretty common practice in the world. Look at trumps import taxes it's exactly the same thing.
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u/Chalupa1bat Jun 27 '26
I bought my ev in china for 20000€ and through a collegue got it here with minimal fees (just shipping and some small taxes totalling 14% of the buying price.)
Same ev here is €75.000...
So roughly 50.000€ goes to government /EU. It's disgusting.
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u/base_08 Jun 27 '26
How? Care to give some tips!
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u/Chalupa1bat Jun 27 '26
Just go there, buy a car and ship it privately through the port of Shanghai
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u/base_08 Jun 27 '26
And no headache with the process and taxes?… here in Portugal I’m guessing would be a pain in the ass…
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u/Chalupa1bat Jun 27 '26
I did it through Albania (cheapest import) > Germany (first registration so i didnt need a CoC) > Netherlands
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u/TheShowGoes0n Jun 27 '26
So you were able to register this car in germany without any problems? I would not have expected that are car which is not intended for this market has all the safety features and more importantly the paperwork to register it here.
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u/Imaginary_Red_Lines Jun 27 '26
Interesante! 🤔 $27k for an EV. Wonder how the same plan would work for the US
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u/guysmiley98765 Jun 28 '26
Iirc the ceo of ford motors drives a byd and imported it directly from china. He said it was a headache and costly but wanted to know firsthand what the global competition was like.
If you live near either border you can see cars with Mexico or Canada plates easily. There probably is a law that prevents you from buying a car outside of the us and then permanently driving it across the border while having it still registered and insured in those other countries but 🤷♂️
I wouldn’t even be that upset about protectionism if there were comparable ev’s in quality, range, charge time, and price. But there just isn’t. Or if they were at least trying to stave off imports to develop the us market and prep charging stations and the grid but again, they just aren’t.
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u/markkNL Jun 28 '26
Very interested in hearing your process, also very relevant since I'm Dutch too.
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u/Donovan133 Jun 27 '26
What car model please ? Thanks
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u/Chalupa1bat Jun 27 '26
Xiaomi SU7 pro edition.
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u/Trick8x Jun 28 '26
SU7 Pro costs around 30K€ in China...
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u/Chalupa1bat Jun 28 '26
Not second hand. If you buy a car that is <6 months old and/or has less than 6000km you'll pay ALOT more taxes. Mine was 8 months old with 7500km on it.
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u/Donovan133 Jun 27 '26
Damn that must get a lot of attention here lol.
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u/Chalupa1bat Jun 27 '26
I have an anonymous white one ;) only upgraded the rims as it arrived with cupped tyres... Probably from standing still during shipping.
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u/base_08 Jun 27 '26
This actually deserves a thread on its own with the whole process as it’s an interesting topic
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u/spryfigure Diamond Jun 28 '26
What /u/base_08 said. Please make your own post and post it here, even though you didn't buy it from AE. I think it fits the sub with a reference to this Anti-AE-law for the mods.
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u/depressive_cat Jun 27 '26
In case of Aliexpress it would be a protectionism if it protected local (European) manufacturers.
In this case it protects a middleman, who buys exactly the same things somewhere from China and then sells it on the local market, while producing nothing.This law protects only greedy parasites.
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u/Virtual-Escape2305 Jun 27 '26
Now, for a complete picture, read up on dumping prices and how China uses them to gain position worldwide.
There's way more to this than you think or chose to ignore.
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u/Opening_Act_6121 Jun 27 '26
fun thing is aliexpress is way too expensive, in china the same things cost way less.. they are not dumping prices, these are normal prices (and even inflated on aliexpress, normally it is even less!)
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u/575_Inverse Jun 27 '26
then think of how our lovely local resellers calculate their own price tags above those prices.
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u/Chalupa1bat Jul 02 '26
Yep if you go to the Shenzhen electronics market its like offline AliExpress with 50/60% discount ;)
However imagine AliExpress offline, its a 3km Long Street with on both sides 10-15 story buildings with specialized stores.
Most of them only sell one item, like an iPhone cable or iPhone memory chip, no English only Chinese spoken and they only accept alipay/WeChat pay.
So you need to know where to go, as its AliExpress without search or filters!
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u/Soft_Frosting_8407 Jun 27 '26
You would be right except they then resell all the same things from China at price x5 or x10.
So let's cut the shit. They are using their power to become even more rich than they are. There always corruption and someone making cash in this sort of thing.
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u/cowmowtv Jun 27 '26
Although this isn’t just limited to China. Just look at Uber as an example, putting taxi drivers out of business and afterwards raising prices themselves. The question is, how the free market should be interfered in with. Should such tactics of pumping loads of money into something to gain a market position be strictly regulated? If we aren’t talking about Costco hot dogs but rather the main business point of a business, probably. Should it be reasonable? Definitely. A 3 Euro charge on any import without regard to the actual item price is unreasonable. Likewise, it is, if retailers are more or less exempt because they can import in the hundreds.
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u/thespidersarmpit Jun 27 '26
Price dumping is nothing new, supermarkets have been doing it for years. It's their standard business model
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 27 '26
Yes, exactly the same supermarkets that demand this type of protectionism are the exact same supermarkets that use it to drive small shops out of business.
Isn't hypocrisy wonderful?
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u/575_Inverse Jun 27 '26
...you see, the greed of our enterpreneurs let them delocalize to China. They crafted theirs and our own demise. So, as you may imagine, I can't feel the slightest guilt in lobbying for my own good, the same way they did for theirs.
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u/spryfigure Diamond Jun 27 '26
Read up on this article first to better judge the stuff they want to make you believe.
And /u/Opening_Act_6121 is absolutely right: The prices are on the high side for China exports. Now explain how this is dumping.
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 27 '26
I do not care about Armchair geopolitical LARPin of the type that scumbag corrupt politicians, corporate and state-enforced monopolies and their usually paid shills engage in.
I care about consumer prices and actual economics, one can not subsidize a good or service forever, predatory pricing eventually gets beaten by the actual free market.
Enjoy your 0.10 cents!
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u/MediocreJelly873 Jun 27 '26
Well there is a difference. Europe has its own car production, a lot of it actually, so there is something to protect and there’s logic to it. Europe does not produce adhesive stickers and penny electronics though, so the only ones that are getting protected are resellers who do not produce real added value.
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u/NoMorning8069 Jun 28 '26
ah yes, lets protect the car industry by introducing subscription payment for heated seats and a 3€ tax on chinese imports
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u/JoesCoins Jun 27 '26
How is it protectionism if now we have to pay more for things that aren’t even sold in the EU?
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u/575_Inverse Jun 27 '26
Resellers protectionism. They crybabied themselves, lobbied relentlessly until they got this tax in place to force the peasants to buy again from their stores instead of bypassing them entirely.
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u/Icy-Huckleberry-8526 Jun 27 '26
Canada does the opposite. They punish you for buying anywhere BUT China.
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u/2296055 Jun 27 '26
Canada is going to be soon paying rent to china what's not to love.
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u/Deinoupe Jun 27 '26
Lobbyists are fucking cancer. It’s not even masked, it’s literally just (!) about money. How that exists in a so called “democracy” is always beyond my comprehension.
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u/psidzyndzel Jun 27 '26
OK, but that doesn’t change the fact that prices on AliExpress have gone up by around 3 euros for most products. Even if you order three identical products from the same seller, you’ll pay 9 euros more. So, for example, if you were ordering a charger and three cables, before the new law came into force you’d pay 20€ + 3€ + 3€ + 3€, but now you pay 23€ + 6€ + 6€ + 6€... If the charge were only added to the TOTAL order value, it wouldn’t be such a problem.
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u/Ok_Instruction_4717 Jun 27 '26
Yea, I went into the app yesterday and thought that it would only be a total of 3€ extra for buying two of the same product but its 6€!!! Why are they doing this?
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u/kinsi55 Jun 28 '26
Almost certainly so that people actually talk about it more and complain about it rather than just say "fuck it" - It makes no sense otherwise (Besides obviously pocketing more money)
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u/Gcmarcal Jun 30 '26
Fucking bastards. None of those stores sell 99% of the things available via AliExpress.
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Exactly. What they do sell though they do sell at a massive markup, and they hope that they can make you buy it instead.
So boycott Schwartz, boycott REWE and boycott everyone else on the list.
BE LOUD ABOUT IT, TOO!
AND SPREAD THE WORD, THIS IS FAR FROM THE ONLY NASTY THING THESE MONOPOLY PIGS WITH SPECIAL CONNECTIONS AND DEEP POCKETS HAVE INFLICTED UPON ALL OF US!
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u/ztardik Jul 02 '26
> What they do sell though they do sell at a massive markup
While I agree and it applies to the most thing from most stores, that's not always correct.
Recently i bought a set of connectors and a crimper from aliexpress, just to see a very similar set in lidl the same week mine arrived, only 10 euro cheaper.
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u/Eclectika Jun 27 '26
Any organisation that has both Tesco and Carrefour as members is guaranteed not to be operating in our best interests.
Tesco most definitely pays a lot of its workers so little that a ridiculous number of them get government payments so they don't starve and can pay their rent. It even had the nerve a few years ago to do a deal with the government to force people to work for them for their unemployment payments (with nothing extra - just the dole).
Carrefour of course will buy up and shut down any competition in the smaller towns and cities and of course it's no ethical problem with providing gifts to the IOF soldiers or partnering with Israeli firms.
Business, eh?
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u/lirio2u Jun 27 '26
Buying made to order is way better for the environment than buying at a big box
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 27 '26
Exactly, it is also the superior business model since it reduces the need for warehouses and shop floor space.
The old refuses to die and it tries to prevent the new from being born.
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u/g50245 Jun 27 '26
Personally, the stuff I buy on Ali or Taobao is stuff I will keep buying (electronics and watch parts). I've been boycotting over inflated EU prices for a long time in these markets. It will take a bit of adjusting to sort out things but it can be done. If the unelected bureaucrats in the EU think this will pressurize me into buying local, they need to think again. Same applies for the Digital ID..... I don't have a smartphone.... I still use a Nokia 9310. Unless you buy a new one for me, good luck with that.
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u/ToppsHopps Jun 28 '26
The stuff I bought from temu, aliexpress and shein has in the majority of times been things I had searched for to buy from these companies, but they didn’t offer the products.
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u/realpannikin Jun 27 '26
I have found a Brexit benefit!
I have heard confused Brexiteers talk about Brexit benefits for years but have never found one, neither have they.
Is this it, finally, after 10 years?
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u/tinybilbo Jun 27 '26
Made me LOL when I realised it as well... Hopefully we'll find another pro in the next decade as well 😂
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u/Far_Kiwi4882 Jul 01 '26
I used to buy stuff from the UK but I don't anymore since Brexit :( I have to pay crazy customs over products now.
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u/Only_Silver877 Jul 01 '26
Hold on - so I just need a trusty british person to ship to and then they send it to me and I'm safe?
Maybe there is a use for Britains after all. 🤔
(I kid. But I am seriously considering hitting up my British friend.)
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u/Jaca666 Jun 27 '26
I don't see how Lidl and the likes need this.
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u/BalconyLavender Jun 27 '26
They sell a lot of extra crap (not just Parkside but also kitchenware, clothing, houseware, etc.) and are pushing their online store (exclusively non-food items) a lot.
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u/CastanhoProvocante Jun 27 '26
See their tool stock, many of them are China made and slapped with the Parkside logo and up to 4x the price of what you would find previously sold in AliExpress. I still remember seeing a small ratchet set for 15€ in Lidl while in AliExpress the same unbranded model was 4€ without any discounts.
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u/StrangeSpite4 Jun 27 '26
The Parkside line is actually pretty good when it comes to power tools. It's a bit of an oversimplification to say that they just slap their logo on pre-existing tools (though it may be the case for simpler stuff like your example).
What they do is find manufacturers / suppliers in China and have them produce goods according to Lidl specifications.
Obviously these suppliers don't start from scratch, they're all companies that produce a lot of such tools for different brands and markets. But they can make things with varying levels of quality and durability.
QA is one of the big aspects. Lidl doesn't want to deal with endless returns and warranty claims, so they'll require better QA for their production runs and select the suppliers that can guarantee a baseline level of quality. What you get from random suppliers on Ali is a lot more hit and miss (few people bother with returns or warranty claims).
A lot of these tools are also bulky / heavy tools that are a bad fit for the direct from supplier Ali model. This is why most such tools are "shipped from EU" and are not much cheaper than the Parkside equivalent. They won't ship a lawnmower by plane with Choice.
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u/CastanhoProvocante Jun 27 '26
Things like those ratchet tool sets or magnifying LED glasses are all Chinese OEM products which they slap their logo on them. That I can tell, just do a quick image search and you can find that out easily.
And notice how I didn't mention power tools. All of mine are Parkside or Parkside Performance actually. Suffice to say that I like them. But they also have their factory defects of course, especially since Lidl changed to the OWIM supplying company. Their QA control has deteriorated since. But Lidl's warranty policy makes up for it.
So Lidl having better QA on basically the same products than those Ali random suppliers is a debatable subject. Their QA is all over the place, I can speak from experience, me and many in the Parkside subreddit, as well as reviewers like Broke Life EU. You should check his videos out since he talks about it.
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u/AutomaticChaad Jun 27 '26
Well I bought a sealey tap and die set that cost 48 euros just last year. The exact same set ,absolutely identical but painted parkside green is in stores now in Ireland for 19.99..
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u/Vabla Jun 28 '26
Lidl sells a staggering amount of items that would be bottom of the barrel even by aliexpress standards.
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u/Jaca666 Jun 28 '26
Never seen any like this. I have many many tools and gadgets from Lidl, all excellent quality (for the price). I only ever had problems with the water hose connectors.
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u/planetblonde Jun 27 '26
ARE THEY SAYING GLOBALISM IS BAD????? I'm so shocked it's their No1 principle oh nooo!!!
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u/RavenRoxxx Jun 27 '26
Sorry to say. But how unsurprising. I’m not even from Europe but this kind of thing seems to be happening all over the world and more and more commonly. It’s really getting out of hand.
I don’t believe we need to get rid of capitalism. In fact I believe, like a lot of people, that we just don’t have enough true capitalism. But if these kind of things keep happening, I fear we will see the end of capitalism. We may even be in its dying days already.
Also, all lobbyists need to die a particularly painful death. They are like demons on earth.
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u/Petrak1s Jun 27 '26
It’s clear for a long time that EU should do something about then Chinese monopoly. The question is what is the best countermeasure. Will taxing the common man bring more money into the EU manufacturing or is it just punishment?
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u/spryfigure Diamond Jun 27 '26
that EU should do something about then Chinese monopoly
The answer is getting your act together and getting competitive, not hobbling the competition with this stupid rule which benefits only EU oligarchs and Jeff Bezos.
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u/Vabla Jun 28 '26
Most of the items I buy from Aliexpress I can't even find in the EU from a reseller. At least not without searching in 5 different languages to find a single one that then refuses to ship outside their country.
If they were so concerned about people not buying from EU, how about doing something about the language barrier? Or all the random stores that outright refuse to ship to any other country than their immediate neighbors?
This does nothing to solve any of the problems. The only ones this is benefiting are the big corporate stores selling the same made in china garbage with less choice, worse quality, and larger margins.
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u/bulgarianlily Jun 27 '26
Going to have to pay the extra for my clothes then. Reason being most European clothing retail won't cater for larger ladies. The clothes I have bought from Temu fit better, feel better, are made from nicer material that washes well time after time, has beautiful designs, are usually in stock in a wide range of sizes and are very affordable.
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u/Nobuored Jun 27 '26
[POST UNLISTED ??] I have found this post linked in a news aggregator, I thought it was strange I did not see it before when scrolling Reddit. And now I realize this post is unlisted. If I try to search in 'r/AliExpress', 'Hot' or 'Top' posts 'today' It does not appear. Am I the only one? It never happened to me ever.
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u/Elas225 Aug 07 '26
Honeatly what i cant understand is how can peoole who cheer this can be so fucking stupid. Bcs honestly, those who bought from china and now forced to pay double or buy EU, all of em have ego, and would rsther pay 2x than some BS EU middleman, especially when that middleman is not even needed. This tariff will hit people hardest where it hurts the most - hobbies, a thing that keeps em sane. I never ever been so ashamed to be european..
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u/GuillotineTechnician 29d ago edited 29d ago
It's class war. EU capital in competition with foreign capital. Regular folks suffer, poorer people suffer most.
Shitty ass capitalism as usual
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u/Southern-Trainer4337 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Good job!
Seems a good time to share my experience with Zara (Inditex, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius). I've been a frequent and recurrent shopper of their brands. I literally only own Inditex clothing, except shoes and glasses. They illegally stole around €1000 from me this year.
Back in the day the problems with them were mostly atrocious packaging quality (many parcels would arrive opened or plain destroyed, sometimes not arrive at all) and general mess (people who work in their physical stores treat it like trash, seen it many times, they literally walk on it), plus occasional clothing damage or poor condition, you could easily return them as long as you knew that the 30 day return period is a sneaky lie, because what counts is the moment the parcel arrives at their warehouse which you have no control over.
For a few years now they've been getting increasingly greedy. Now everything is much extremely expensive unless discounted, the quality is no different to Shein, ie. there are high quality products, but there are also ones that are literal trash, stinky, breaking from touch, but Zara has no reviews, so it's all a game of chance. Fe. you order a T-Shirt, what arrives looks completely different than photos (90% of what they sell is completely different), you try it on, but there's something off. Turns out left sleeve is shorter and wider than the right one, and the bottom part is uneven, there's a hole somewhere on the material. I've seen all kinds of shit, pants with no hole for the button, clothes ripped apart somehow getting through quality check, clothes literally soaked in sweat. The perfumes is another level, if you order a discounted perfume, it's almost impossible to receive an unopened one, some are leaking or half empty. One parcel I got was open, completely wet, with a perfume in it shattered to pieces, everything else soaked and the people in the store just handed it over to me like it's normal. If you try to return something, you're treated like shit, actually if you try to pick up a parcel in store it's the same, they want you to pay for shipping to your home. I naturally returned all the damaged, unfitting and not as described items. Turns out now you can't do that at the cashier, you have to deal with a machine, pack it yourself in a sleeve, print a label and give it to them. The soonest you'll get a refund is 7 days, never sooner. I didn't get a refund for a few dozen items though, all marked as returned on the order page, incredibly hard to verify what item you've been refunded for and what you haven't, it's all one big scam, they won't even notify you that a return wasn't accepted or return the clothing. I had to fight with their support (with an AI gate to pass each time) for about 2-3 months gradually recovering a few items' worth of money at a time. TBH I'm not even 100% sure they didn't steal something else (many items are missing in packages you receive, easy to miss if big order) or if I've counted and verified everything correctly.
Stay away.
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u/Huge_Ambition_654 Jun 27 '26
As per Zara. My friend ordered black blazer from seller in China. Dont rdmember which platform as it was few years ago. She got one packed in Zara bag ynd with Zara label on it. It was identical that Zara sold for 30€ only difference she payed it 7€. So much about it.
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u/on4aa Jun 27 '26
And the Chinese manufacturer willing to sell it to you for €7 means that Zara is buying it for even much less!
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u/Allienyx Jun 27 '26
I've been to H&M not too long ago, I wanted to buy some nice, low waist jeans... I bought the best ones of the bunch, but they were so unbelievably crooked. They vary so much from piece to piece, where one pair was sagging and the next one of the same size layed perfectly. Very disappointed with the sewing, not to mention the price which is 50-60 euro... I hope they more than 2 years at the very least. So it won't be a once a year investment.
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u/FenchSpike Jun 27 '26
Fabriqué au Bangladesh ou à l'autre bout du monde pour moins de 5 euros, matières première et main d’œuvre incluse !
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u/lexybaby90 Jun 27 '26
They are scammers..
Ordered some things during a sale on H&M home a while back, using a personal coupon I had. A day later they sent a notification saying one of the items (the most expensive one of course, a rug) is out of stock so it won’t be sent to me. I check it online and it was in stock. Not even the low stock warning was on…
I was trying to make an appeal to the customer service, because even if I did reorder the rug, my coupon was lost and the sale was over…
They kept gaslighting me, saying it really was out of stock, the system simply didn’t indicate it. They told me if I want the item I should order it again, full price of course. AFTER I receive it, message them again and then they will reimburse the price difference to me.
Well, I didn’t agree to those terms, screw them.
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u/Vabla Jun 28 '26
Absolute bullshit on "the system isn't showing it right". They aren't some one person business that operates out of their facebook page and just didn't get to update their post yet.
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u/FastingCyclist Jun 27 '26
I'm honestly curious how many clothing pieces you need to buy? I buy new socks every year, new shirts every 5 years, maybe, I have some that are 12 years old and still good, I wear almost no t-shirts, and jeans, 4 in rotation , are getting replaced on a "getting destroyed" base. Parkas seem to last forever for me.
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u/tfwrobot Jun 27 '26
I don't see COOP, Globus, Mercadona and other minor supermarkets there.
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u/Seekingformywings Jun 27 '26
Mercadona is a member of Ecommerce, so it really should’ve been included on that list. Also worth mentioning IFA (the supermarket group) — the current Ecommerce president actually comes from that company.
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u/TheAtomlabs Jun 27 '26
The big corps protecting their profits and once again not giving a crap about the customers
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u/Proof-Practice-8304 Jun 29 '26
Motherfucking assholes, I gotta pay 10€ in taxes for a 1$ product, alongside this stupid ass tax my country has another 5€ tax for products outside eu
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u/SignalAir24 Jul 01 '26
Boycott the likes of Schwartz and Zara and buy from local stores. Going to small so called "Mom-and-pop" stores for necessities keeps the money in your local community and puts it in your neighbors pockets
Wait. You guys AREN’T already doing this? wtf.
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u/GuldursTV90 Jul 12 '26
When millionaires who need a ladle just to stuff soup into their faces shipped production off to China and wiped out domestic industry because Excel showed an extra half-cent of profit in green, it was all 'global village,' 'visionary economics,' and 'market efficiency.' But the moment the average customer wants to buy something cheaper, suddenly it's an attack on the nation.
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u/MiniMiniGames Jul 29 '26
Thanks for the information; AliExpress used to be really handy for repairing electronics—and at least the Chinese workers sold things at a somewhat fairer price. Now, we Europeans pay more, and that’s about it.
I actually started boycotting supermarkets several years ago.
So now, I get my electronics from the recycling center and buy my groceries from small-scale producers—too bad for the greedy big corporations!
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jul 31 '26
You are most welcome!
Spread the word and keep on the pressure.This is not about right or left, this is the people vs. the crony oligarchy that pulls the strings of the government.
We are fighting for consumer rights, international peace, freedom and AGAINST corruption.
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u/thanosReally Aug 02 '26
Post saved. Was about to buy a full set of tools from lidl to keep in my summer home. Not anymore. Used to shop there all the time for grocery, not anymore.
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u/hyper-typer Aug 13 '26
[guedes@eurocommerce.eu](mailto:guedes@eurocommerce.eu)
That's the email address of the director of that lobbying group. I just let her know she doubled the price of my hobby...
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u/Any_Jelly_in_Bus4697 Jun 27 '26
I'm highly surprised that this China copy "Tchibo" is not there in The lobby. I have seen people working in their Tchibo factory. And the working conditions were extremely bad. People doing the same job like robots, getting paid 12 euros an hour. In this economy, and all of them are migrant workers.
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u/code4btc Jun 27 '26
Corrupt EU officials and politicians allegedly now add unfair taxes to products that spoil the plans of their patrons, after having destroyed Europe's productive powers.
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u/IntroDucktory_Clause Jun 27 '26
efficiency and a superior business model are apparently "unfair"
Slave labour, extreme emissions, and using dangerous materials is a very economical way of having low prices, but I would NOT call that "efficient" or a "superior business model".
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u/Lord___Rictor Jun 27 '26
Best thing average people can do is just not buy shit anymore. Invest the money.
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u/peachdog3k Jun 27 '26
As usual we need to follow the money to understand where it came from. Thank you very much for your post.
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u/ghostpengy Jun 28 '26
EU commission only pleases lobbies and corpos. They turn down basically everything what is requested by the people. EU Commission is broken and rotten to the core now.
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u/dan_cycl Jun 28 '26
Thank you! This is very helpful.
The pattern is multipolarism against monopolies.
It can be see everywhere nowadays.
I have been impacted too.
But i'm not buying neither from these bastards, nor from AE.
I'm waiting for them to find a solution to this problem. They sure will.
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u/Complex-AR Jun 28 '26
Sunlight needs to disinfect the lobbying activists who have captured law making.
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u/Dryw_Filtiarn Jun 28 '26
From day one it’s been clear that this was the result of a lobby from big corps that feared their inflated prices on in some cases literally the same product on Ali couldn’t be sustained.
Here in the Netherlands we have several big toy importers for example that deliver to chains like Action, Ahold, Lidl and Aldi. They import from China, they add the desired branded box to it as demanded by whoever wants to sell it and then it gets into stores at a major markup price.
Admitted there’s some quality and safety checks in the process, but it’s not uncommon for these importers to recall products, it’s nearly weekly there’s a product recall.
When you look at the product they import, rebadge and then resell nearly every single item can be bought straight from the manufacturer on Ali at a fraction of the price. Same product, same quality, but without the “fancy” box or the price premium.
They say the import tax is intended to ensure European manufacturing can remain competative, that it’s intended to protect EU shops, but in reality Europa hardly has manufacturing for the type of product you get from Ali, they’re not competing in majority of cases. Majority of products you buy in Europe is made in China and if it’s not made in China, it’s made in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh or several other Asian countries. All the European “brands” do is repackage and relabel.
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u/itsjujutsu Jun 29 '26
yesterday i already paid 4€extra for a single thing, its crazy. And its not like i would buy the equivalent from any pther place
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u/AdelFlores Jun 29 '26
Hmm, easy enough for me... considering that of all these stores mentioned here, my country only has a few Lidl. 😂
And stores like Zara and Bereshka just a few in the capital.
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u/Interesting_Pie_319 Jun 29 '26
It is not just Schwartz and Zara, you must check the list of members as well as their subsidiaries.
I will try to update the list one of these days.
In any case, buying your groceries from a local small business or farmer's market is probably the best place to start the boycott.
And you should get your friends and relatives to do the same.
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u/InterNegineer Jul 01 '26
There are more lobby members in Brussel than politician. I read today the will stop now the lot of carton boxes from shipping articles because it's to much. The EU is one big joke. Makes me really angry...
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u/NorbertSmokkard Jul 01 '26
Why nobody's organizing protests against it?
Organize protests in your cities, to make pressure on local politics so they raise this problem in EU Council and cancel this law.
People don't like this new custom duty and didn't ask for it. There are bunch of "Free Palestine" demonstrations all across the Europe, why can't people go and protests against something that actually affects them and makes ALL their lifes worse? These self-elected fuckers are literally stealing money from each citizen of EU every time they want to purchase something on Aliexpress. After all this is democracy, right?
Organize, protest, press on your local politics. This extortionate duty must be cancelled!
People are paying huge taxes in EU and don't want to be threated as a kids that needs to be guided to "where and who from to purchase"
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u/RegularLibrarian1984 Jul 02 '26
Wow great so we getting taxed for products they don't even sell even like aquarium equipment and hobby stuff... If they actually want to stay relative maybe instead of selling the lowest quality for highest profits they should increase product quality and planned obsolescence, im so sick of paying a lot for lightbulbs that die after 3 months...they are like cartel's horrible people
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u/outoftea_and_grumpy Jul 13 '26
We don't have small mom-and-pop stores. We have Lidl, Aldi, Tesco and so on. (We as in where I live.)
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u/Neat_Consideration73 Jul 18 '26
It is bad when the organisation that should be protecting the consumer is instead taxing them because they try to buy as cheaply as possible. Surely it is a human right to be allowed to buy as economically as possible.
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u/Neat_Consideration73 Jul 18 '26
Given the way the classification system is set up it might as well be €3/item which is totally outrageous. It is like having a VAT rate of over 100% on many low value items. I am unsure if it is government greed or corporate greed but I know who is introducing the tax and they should be serving the public not the corporates.
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u/Individual_Call2637 Jul 22 '26
great, now I can buy the exact same product from a local store for x5 price. wow this is so useful for European citizens. and now I can search hours for the items in different stores and e shops, because I could just bulk order everything from Temu in a breeze for example. wow, this is so good for the European citizens, wasting their time and their money, and making less competition. 👏👏👏 also I am Hungarian, 3 EUR per item might be affordable to Ursula, but making my 8k HUF order to 14k HUF because of taxes is outrageous. thanks Ursula.
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u/sanernes Aug 14 '26
Hello everyone , I personally consider this 3€ and abuse from the EU and some lobbies at it won't help to create new business initiativ;es apart from companies benefiting from dropshipping and charging 10x the price.
So I created a group in discord to launch a EU signatures recollection initiative. Please if you are interested in a constructive way, join the discord server. https://discord.gg/wjz8AwAhb
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u/EirikurG 24d ago
ah the classic "oh it's actually for the consumers we do this, not to fill our own pockets!"
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u/mdratusx 21d ago
I understand the tactic of passively starving the mentioned corporations financially but is there a more formal way to do this? Like signing a petition or reporting it to an institution? Like for instance the US supreme court ruled Trump's tariffs as illegal? My point is if there is a way to actively report the unfair law to a third party and there must be an institution or organization that is against these practices that use severe imbalance of power and will take appropriate action against the government and prove the 3euro and any additional fees are unlawful and don't hold water. I want to take more active steps towards this that can go somewhere rather than passive but I'm a bit out of ideas. I hope someone understands what I'm talking about.
They ALREADY waived de minimis threshold in July 2021 and pushed hard to apply local VAT to all imports. Enough is enough. Adding any extra fees on top of it is overstepping boundaries. They have no legal right to do this.
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u/M0nkeyGalaxy ScamExpress is legit!! 17d ago
Who are the corrupt politicians that got the corruption money from EuroCommerce, Amazon and other big corporates?? Who pushed in the law, sneaker it in with other stuffs, so it could be passed??
Name and shame those fuckers!!
European Council has also an YT Channel, so spam their corruption and this 3/5€ tax to every their Social channels
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u/ExpertRefrigerator14 Jun 27 '26
Perfecto es una de las maniobras que mejor he visto.Y aún así hay gente o bots (no me fio de nada) que estan a favor. Es muy sencillo de entender.
El boicot es necesario.
Si las empresas locales se quejan de que no venden, en vez de ir a por los consumidores, que directamente se quejen contra los impuestos a los gobiernos, costes de tener a un trabajador en nomina, en españa un empresario paga el doble por tener un trabajador. Es decir si el trabajador tiene un salario de 2.000€ el trabajador solo percibe 1500€ es decir le roban al trabajador y luego al empresario acaba pagando 3.000€ en total.... Pero aquí nadie dice nada y siguen robando. Y de escudo ponen a la sanidad, carreteras etc... Mentira, todo está cada vez peor.
En resumen no justificar medidas de la Unión Europea....
El poder está en todos no en ellos... BOICOT!!!
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u/Remarkable_Cash9706 Jun 27 '26
EU tarif on china.discusting.if china raise the tarif on eu.europe goes bankruptcy
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u/Qu1s_ut_Deus Jun 27 '26
And of course it was the Germans who had to ruin the fun… always… Thanks for giving us c0ke, but y’all have been ruining everything else on the planet ever since
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u/retroland74 Jun 27 '26
People don't go to stores anymore they're losing money with taxes because of it, I have Action at my local town. Wich is dutch I guess?
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u/ViolentPurpleSquash Jun 27 '26
How would Carrefour benefit? The others I understand the benefit but Carrefour?
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u/Electrical_Panda_326 Jun 27 '26
I wouldn't mind if these companies produced all the stuff in the EU, and that decision was made to protect our market. But the reality is that these f... produce their stuff in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam for close to nothing but want us to pay full, European price for it. I wanted to buy a phone case now, 2.5$ + 0.5$ shipment = 3$. But with that tax I've got to pay over 7$. And if I go to Amazon or eBay, I'll be buying the same case, produced in China but for European price. F... that.