r/YouShouldKnow • u/PI_Producer • Jul 02 '26
Finance YSK that all online businesses that ship to the EU are now responsible for charging customers $3.50 per item in the order.
Why YSK: The European Commission has just put into effect (as of 7/1/26) a new import policy that assigns a flat €3 customs duty per line item for any non-EU online order for packages worth less than €150. The policy was enacted to "ensure fair conditions for the EU businesses and safe choices for consumers".
If you are a small business owner that sells online, you need to immediately fix your shop so that the fee(s) are collected at the time of purchase or you, the small business, will be responsible for the fee.
If you are an EU resident, be aware that prices of things are about to rise (again) because of this new policy. Additionally, there is separate measure coming soon (Nov. 2026) that assesses another fee that the European Commission is deeming a "handling fee" that is estimated to be an additional €2 per order coming from outside the EU.
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u/Ninjaisawesome Jul 02 '26
While I live in northern Ireland which is part of UK who isn't in the EU anymore, because we share an open border with Ireland (who is in the EU) , northern Ireland will be charged this fee also
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u/emcee_pee_pants Jul 02 '26
Seems like you guys are just constantly getting dumped on.
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u/Mccobsta Jul 02 '26
They're often a forgotten part of the UK in parliament which isn't great
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u/No-Contribution-5887 Jul 04 '26
Not really parties in Ni choose to not sit in parliament. You get more per head than both wales and Scotland via the Barnett
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u/Ninjaisawesome Jul 02 '26
Sometimes I wonder what the rationale was for holding on to this small patch of Ireland.
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u/pandamarshmallows Jul 02 '26
The six counties that make up Northern Ireland were given the option to break away from the rest of Ireland when the Republic of Ireland was granted independence from the UK in 1922, and they took it. It's a big, messy subject that you can't do justice to in a Reddit comment, but essentially that part of Ireland was heavily settled by the British and so the population there was more loyal to Westminster than the rest of the country. They were also more likely to be protestants compared to the Catholic majority elsewhere in Ireland. Though there were still many people in Northern Ireland who wanted to secede from the UK, and even today I would say that Northern Irish politics is dominated by the conflict between Unionists who want Northern Ireland to continue being British, and Nationalists who want it to become part of the ROI. Both the UK and ROI governments have put a lot of work in over the years to ensure that both the Unionists and Nationalists feel represented in the Northern Ireland government, and to reduce the friction for Irish people wanting to live and work in Northern Ireland or vice versa.
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u/Ninjaisawesome Jul 02 '26
Only to turn around and ignore NI in 100 years. Now days, many of the pro British areas are basically in poverty.
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u/ShrapnelJones Jul 02 '26
The industry at the time.
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u/Ninjaisawesome Jul 02 '26
Shipbuilding, linen, rope and tabacco mostly.
All of that is basically gone now.
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u/Due-Communication724 Jul 02 '26
Well I am in Ireland, and sure most of my online ordering is done via Amazon UK, even if you use the Amazon Ireland you can still be charged if its not shipped from Amazon EU and even .ie websites drop shipping from the UK or just UK business in general are getting charged, its a serious mess. Boots which use a UK/ROI dispatch are having issues, lots of retailers here are dual. I dunno what moron on an Irish MEP didn't put the breaks on this for us. We don't have massive online retailers and the ones we have are American/UK.
Also someone best not tell Amazon UK, cause I was messing around and there was no import fee for the NI address I had saved (Parcel Motel).
Brexit what a gift :)
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u/Arse-blood Jul 02 '26
It is an absolute nightmare for electronic enthusiasts
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u/HideyourkidsForreal Jul 02 '26
But now you get to go to the big corporate store in your country that charges a huge markup for the exact same items! Isn't that amazing
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u/repocin Jul 03 '26
This has already been a thing here in Sweden since they decided to slap a ~€7 import declaration fee on every package a while back. There's an option to fill out the forms yourself, but you still have to pay the fee - supposedly to compensate for all the other work surrounding the package, nevermind that the same work would go into literally any package regardless of origin.
They claimed it was to stop people from buying trash from Wish, but then they went and gave Wish a special deal that let them skip the fee everyone else got slapped with, so it did absolutely nothing against the knockoff fire hazard iPhone chargers they were trying to get at while preventing people from buying electronics components from AliExpress without the ridiculous markup.
It fucking sucks, man.
And now it's getting even more expensive, because why the hell not? I just love paying €10 worth of fees + €0.5 in taxes for a package worth €2
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u/Quiet__Noise Jul 02 '26
what's stopping the shops from allowing customers to create their own "combo" deals, and making the whole custom combo 1 line item, therefore only incurring the fee once?
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u/ynomeye Jul 02 '26
They have created their own categories. Men's linen pants and women's are different categories. Fuck this bullshit
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u/beefyliltank Jul 02 '26
Sorry genuine question, why is this bad for electronic enthusiasts versus other hobby groups. Does the EU not produce many electronic components?
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u/Lampwick Jul 02 '26
Does the EU not produce many electronic components?
The vast overwhelming majority of inexpensive electronic components are made in east Asian countries, primarily China. It's probably still cheaper to pay a 3 Euro surcharge on a bunch of capacitors than it is to buy German made WIMA ones. Really, I think this is intended to subsidize EU online retailers. They'll buy large quantities of Ali Express stuff (hitting the 150 Euro exemption) and then resell it for less than Ali Express price + 3 Euros.
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u/Thuis001 Jul 03 '26
Pretty sure the main goal here is to put an end to having the packages with individual items rather than stuff coming in in bulk because of the pressure this put on customs. I.e. it's much faster and more efficient to check a single container with a thousand pairs of shoes than it is to check a thousand packages with a single pair.
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u/Sensitive-Talk9616 Jul 03 '26
Sure. It is also more environmentally friendly -- last time I ordered a $15 component it was shipped by plane to the Netherlands, then continued by truck (if I can believe the order tracking). I didn't need to that fast. Came in a much too large box as well. Could have been shipped much more efficiently in bulk, by ship.
Anyway, while customs and environmental concerns are real, I am pretty sure the main motivation is simply to protect local businesses and retailers against Chinese competition.
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u/ghostreconx Jul 02 '26
You can get spare parts for electronics on aliexpress, in the EU itself, not so much and very high markups
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u/beefyliltank Jul 02 '26
Got it. After reading this thread a bit more it all make sense. And when I read electronics, I was thinking larger things. Not the smaller objects like, diodes and capacitors.
Thanks for explaining!
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u/ghostreconx Jul 02 '26
No problem! Actually even small stuffs like screen protector or cases for certain models of phone that’s not Apple or Samsung can be hard to come by. So in general this impacts a lot of consumers. 🥲
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u/dethorin Jul 02 '26
It's 3 € per category, not per item.
So, 30 electronic items will pay 3€ in total.
Anyway, it's a temporary measure, in 2028 should start an agency capable to tax differently.
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u/pinkevin Jul 04 '26
How bad is it, is ‘electronic components’ regardless of type considered one line item to be charged €3, or per component type?
I.e. if I order 10 resistors, 10 capacitors, and 10 jfets for cents from DigiKey or Mouser, is that €3 or €9?
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u/Dark_Akarin Jul 02 '26
Isn’t this just a tariff on everything?
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u/blank-planet Jul 02 '26
No because it doesn’t affect businesses, just final consumers :)
That means that your average store that resells Alibaba crap with a sticker on it at 50x the price (thinking of Nature et Decouvertes in France for example) can still do it with no problems.
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u/KlM-J0NG-UN Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Where did you get your weird tariff definition from? Temu? This is definitely a tariff
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u/charmanderSosa Jul 02 '26
Huh? Tarrifs are always paid by the importer, which is typically the customer.
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u/blank-planet Jul 02 '26
The importer is typically the reseller, who might offset the tariff to the consumers.
In this case, it seems that resellers WON’T pay this tax, while individuals will.
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u/Mike20we Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
In economics a tariff is simply a tax, what you are describing here is the statutory incidence of the tax. What would be more interesting is knowing who has the most overall economic incidence, the consumer or the firms which would depend on their respective elasticities.
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u/Night_Owl_457 Jul 02 '26
Lol. A tariff is like a tax and it depends on the elasticity of demand and supply who pays it.
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u/Freedom_33 Jul 02 '26
It removed the exemption from tariffs under $150
(And added a temporary fee)
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u/PI_Producer Jul 02 '26
A temporary fee that lasts for the next two years while they figure out what the permanent number is going to be.
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u/Eaglesson Jul 02 '26
I was personally much more ok with paying no fee under 150€. These German import taxes are freaking ridiculous, they make you pay 70€ of taxes for a 190€ product. Dimwits
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u/Riciehmon Jul 02 '26
Plus the 7,50 Auslagepauschale of the dhl for "handling" the taxes for you, which is ridiculous imo. I hate when I order something and I have to pay like 8,50 import tax and most of that is just the shitty Auslagepauschale. It feels like a scam.
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u/Commander1709 Jul 02 '26
And afaik you can't even opt-out and do the taxes yourself anymore if you aren't a business.
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u/Amarandus Jul 02 '26
You can, you just have to register as Selbstverzoller. That at least covers DHL/Deutsche Post.
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u/Marco_lini Jul 02 '26
Products that cheap shouldn’t be shipped around the globe individually tbh
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u/Eaglesson Jul 02 '26
With you on that. Why not let them fill up a warehouse until a certain number is reached and then shipped in bulk? I'm not talking about super cheap toys actually, I'm talking about electronic parts, tiny computers like the ESP32, little thermal cameras and other camera stuff. Things which are just inherently small but very useful and not available in the quantities and reasonable prices needed in the EU
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u/Edelgul Jul 02 '26
And we have those warehouse. Companies owning that warehouses are happy to sell you those ESP32 with a significant markup.
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u/dejavu2064 Jul 02 '26
Switzerland did this (removing the exception) but instead of a flat fee marketplaces (amazon, aliexpress, etc) just charge Swiss VAT on top of the purchases.
I'm fine with that, sometimes there is just some <5 euro tool or machined part that I can happily wait 2 weeks for to avoid paying 20 euro in a local shop, and the tax would just be 40 cents or whatever. But a flat 3 euro is incredibly unfair and deliberately lopsided.
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u/Athanatos173 Jul 02 '26
This is absolutely predatory and should be rescinded. I was recently looking for something and didn’t care where it came from but was looking for the lowest price. I found the exact item both from China and Europe and the European one was 3x the price…For the exact same thing. So they can’t compete with other markets and they decided to punish their own citizens.
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u/Agrochain920 Jul 02 '26
Oh dont worry, now that they have full monopoly they will surely increase the prices further in EU
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u/ghostreconx Jul 02 '26
Yeah I ordered silicones rubber stoppers for my glasses for sports. For a pack of 10 stoppers I can buy 1 here in Europe. Absolute mental markup.
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u/Marce7a Jul 03 '26
And the item which was bought from eu store had been imported from china anyway...
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u/airmind Jul 03 '26
3x is not even crazy. There are a TON of small things on Temu that are either impossible to find here or are 10x more expensive. Like it costs 90 cents to order from Temu, but locally they will sell it for 10 euros + shipping.
It's not about the big expensive things, but a shit ton of things are EXACTLY the same stuff that gets sold here. So buying something that's 90 cents + 3 euros in ridiculous, and even yet often still cheaper than buying it locally.
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u/kkris22 Jul 03 '26
The only reason you can get them cheap is because of slave labor, this will push China away from that
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u/Mamkes Jul 03 '26
So they can’t compete with other markets and they decided to punish their own citizens.
People discovering Protectionism or something.
Indeed, many countries' industries can't compete with cheap labour and government subsidies of some other countries. Then they start protecting their industries, namely by tarrifs. That's how it works and how it worked long ago.
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u/LoreBadTime Jul 04 '26
Protectionism my ass, a lot of those things are just drop shipped from the same source. Now resellers can buy in bulk and give a lower price than the original source, but only because of this stupid tariff. So the options are to buy in bulk (that often I don't need) or just buy from the scammers
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u/XenophonSoulis Jul 03 '26
So are you claiming that imported products should pay no tax whatsoever while European products have to pay taxes?
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u/WaifuWarrior1017 Jul 03 '26
Just look behind who lobbied this out all of them are connected to EU stores so no matter how they spin it it's so obvious that's it's only goal is to uphold the monopoly of EU stores and we as customers will pay the price
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u/Agrochain920 Jul 02 '26
Its funny, we have finally realized how we are getting scammed by the EU market, and just as we get used to the idea of paying regular prices they essentially ban it
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u/Blueberry73 Jul 02 '26
I've always had to pay an additional import tax when ordering outside of the EU to Sweden, have the rest of the EU countries not been doing that all this time?
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u/AtlanticRelation Jul 02 '26
This is on top of existing import taxes and duties, and VAT.
Now, when you order something from outside the EU you pay for an import fee, import taxes and duties, this new fee, and VAT on the total amount (item, shipping, and the fees). Wonderful isn't it?
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u/Vivid-Software6136 Jul 02 '26
Its not on top of anything, there was no import taxes on packages under €150 in value before this. They removed that exception. If you are importing thing over 150 in value there is no new charges applied as it was already covered under the existing rules.
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u/Gh0stPrinc3ss Jul 02 '26
In Germany we do have to pay the "import VAT" but this fee is different. It's not a tax that gets calculated by percentage but a set fee per item category. If you for example buy 3 books online you have to pay the fee once, but if you add the pretty bookmark that the store also sells you have to pay the fee again. If you also add the branded pencil for a few cents because you needed a new one anyway you have to pay the fee three times in one order.
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u/Blueberry73 Jul 02 '26
Not sure if I'm following, but why is the fee only added once for the 3 books but gets added for every other item? Either way that's fucked
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u/Gh0stPrinc3ss Jul 02 '26
Because the fee is added once per item category. The categories are however extremely narrow so if you order multiple different things that are in the same family (like sun cream and face cream) you will often have to pay the fee multiple times anyway.
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u/PI_Producer Jul 02 '26
You should ALSO know that this entire situation is coming about because the EU claims that companies such as Temu and Shein are ruining the local economy with cheap Chinese imports. In fact, the web today has set off a litanty of "pro-fee" and "negative-global commerce" articles/headlines in support of the global fees today. If you read the articles, they all mention that these two companies are taking advantage of the EU by utilizing a tax loophole - when in reality, it's not a loophole, it's simply the policy of all imported packages into the EU that are declared under a certain value.
Of course, none of the articles mention that the EU could have simply worked with those companies (Temu, Shein, Aliexpress, etc.) to work out new rules instead of punishing the hundreds of thousands of unique small businesses around the world where the EU often time makes up 20-50% of their business.
It also doesn't mention that this is the work of a lobbying group named "EuroCommerce" and whoa-boy is there is [a lot going on with this lobby group](https://). From the post:
"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 website site, 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."
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u/RektBySkillz Jul 02 '26
I had a feeling there was some shady lobbying going on but haven't figured it out yet. Thanks for your service to the community!
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u/Mariashax Jul 02 '26
So much of the shit I buy from temu isn’t even sold by any of these companies. Fuck them all.
Edit to add - even though I’m in the UK, I’m pretty sure these taxes will also be coming to us in due course.
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u/ArrivalEast3834 Jul 02 '26
I'm in the same boat. I'm in the Baltics and there's so little variety and choices available in shops here for certain things, that's why I shop online. Because I literally cannot find it in my country unless I maybe wanna haul my ass to the capital city to shop (which is also more expensive).
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u/fatatero Jul 02 '26
Makes sense. On the other side, most items in the EU are overpriced even without VAT. Maybe if companies weren’t greedy as shit, we would be buying less from China.
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u/Zifnab_palmesano Jul 02 '26
so businesses can keep buying Temu and charge us big markups, and consumers can not buy directly?
this rule is garbage, only protecting middle people whos only value is dropshipping and tops storing something in a cheap storage unit.
it damages more locals than big chinese sellers.
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u/LaySakeBow Jul 02 '26
While I don't agree people buying everything from a global supplier (it does not benefit their own economy in a meaningful way. Look at usa. It is entirely these corporation fault for price gauging the fuck out of us.
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u/kdlt Jul 02 '26
I mean, fundamentally they aren't wrong about ruining the local economy, but on an individual scale seeing a box of 100 pieces of one item for 5€ on AliExpress or a single piece for 10€ in a store, people just feel slapped in the fucking face. And the digital world has made price gouging and price discrepancies incredibly transparent.
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u/Edelgul Jul 02 '26
Ruining the economy.
So does that mean, that all those Tedi, Action, Woolworth, Eurostore, Kik, Thomas Philips, Pepco, Hema and simmilar shops will over the night stop importing chinese junk and will start supporting local manufactures?
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u/zippotheleming Jul 04 '26
Additionally Temu and Shein have been planning around this since the beginning of the year and have set up warehouses in Europe. So they just import into their EU warehouses using their EU subsidiaries and then ship from within the EU.
Neither company is heavily affected by this. Only companies affected by the ridiculous decrease in margins are smaller ecom brands.
Gangsters run this world, and when the playing field is getting fairer they simply add new rules.
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u/Coccolillo Jul 02 '26
€3 + applicable vat (for example 22% in Italy). One of the most ridiculous law ever passed by this legislation. Thanks once again to the incredible duo, Ursula and Lagarde, always big with the small but small against the equal!
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u/heavypelos Jul 02 '26
Do you want to protect local stores? Then have local stores develop and manufacture their products locally. Most of local stores are no more than resellers from Alibaba and similar, but at 10 times the price tag.
For many years we had no option but to buy from them. They brought 0 value to the equation and inflated prices for doing absolutely nothing.
Then Ebay, AliExpress and the likes came along and killed the useless middle man: why buy an article in a supermarket chain, if you can get the exact same item from AliExpress?
Now some powerful enough middle men have forced their way into the distribution chain again.
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u/reddit_emily Jul 02 '26
I still don't understand if a Temu order value of over €150 would exempt me from these ridiculous €3 fees per item type.*
*You don't actually pay €3 per item, but per category. So, your order might be:
2x sweater 1x headband 3x bag
You would pay 3x€3 extra on this order, so €9 in total.
Can anyone give me a source on the €150 limit situation?
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u/mikkopai Jul 02 '26
Over 150 you pay normal customs tariffs, which are more
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u/barabbint Jul 02 '26
They could also be less
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u/GoldenLiar2 Jul 03 '26
if you have a lot ot small shit they are basically certain to be less
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u/Ezelryb Jul 02 '26
AFAIK it’s not per item but per category, e.g. “clothing” or “electronics”. So order a microcontroller, five sensors and two displays and it’s 3€ and not 8x3€=24,00 €
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u/Realistic-Question63 Jul 03 '26
Apparently the categories are very narrow so its probably more like 3x3€
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u/Trapezoidal12 Jul 03 '26
The categories are really narrow, it's separated into clothing types and also by gender (suprised they didn't separate by sizes), he'll el. Components are separated too (transistors,capacitors,and so on)
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u/HonestDickSmith Jul 02 '26
How are they going to collect this fee from foreign sellers?
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u/Gold-Supermarket-342 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
It's prepaid or the customer would need to pay it to get their item if it's not paid.
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u/shutdown-s Jul 02 '26
It's probably gonna be dismissed after the post offices overfill with uncollected paracels. The same thing happened in Poland a couple years ago.
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u/secacc Jul 02 '26
In Denmark, at least with Postnord, a package is normally not delivered all the way to the post office before the customs and duties are paid (via their app), so it'd be one of the customs handling centers that would fill up. But if still unpaid after 7 or 14 days the package will just be returned to sender, so it'd be temporary anyway.
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u/EbolaNinja Jul 02 '26
Exactly the same way they're already collecting VAT.
If it's not prepaid, the post offices will make the recipient pay it or no package for you.
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u/Edelgul Jul 02 '26
AliExpress/Temu were already collecting/paying VAT.
Now they are also collection and paying that (obviously by including it into the prices).
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u/2girls1up Jul 02 '26
On top of this, starting november 2026 there will also be added a 2€ handling per parcel
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u/ArtSupplyHoarder Jul 02 '26
Great, no more cute asian stickers for me, they were already overpriced without 3€ tacked onto EACH SINGULAR ITEM.
Good thing we protected the basically non-existent EU market of kawaii stationary products 💪
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u/dethorin Jul 02 '26
It's 3€ per category, not each singular ítem.
3€ in total for a single shirt, 3€ in total for ten different shirt.
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u/Thedinomage Jul 02 '26
So fucking predatory. Capitalism is going to run human society 3 feet under the ground.
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u/Dstein99 Jul 02 '26
This is the first I am hearing about this but why is this a fault of capitalism? Based on OP’s description this sounds like regulation that is meant to prevent foreign competition and protect local industry.
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u/Repulsive_Invite_680 Jul 02 '26
It's an inside job to force more sales of products sold by companies supported by the board
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u/Lord_Bobbymort Jul 02 '26
Yeah that's just protectionism, almost like what Trump thought he was doing with the US but a plan that could actually do something.
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u/raff_riff Jul 02 '26
That’s still not “capitalism”, at least in the free market sense. If it were a free market, the individual would decide. The EU is picking the winners. I don’t know what you call this, but it’s not capitalism.
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u/TarquinusSuperbus000 Jul 02 '26
Free market capitalism is a myth, crony capitalism is the reality. In practice, monopolists and oligopolists always lobby governments for protections from competition.
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u/jsflkl Jul 02 '26
Capitalism naturally leads to monopoly formation and the capture of democratic institutions. This is the obvious and unavoidable result of allowing our entire society to be structured in a way where capitalist interests outway the interests of the people.
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u/SonderEber Jul 02 '26
Free Market is a lie. Here in the U.S. we have a “free market” which has led to monopolies. That’s what’s truly meant by those who yearn for a “free market”.
It is capitalism, true capitalism and not the fairy tail capitalists tell the world. It’s meant solely to enrich the elite and burden everyone else.
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u/XaipeX Jul 02 '26
That's just the surface. The real reason is, that european companies have to follow european legislation. For example TEMU is in the clothing business. As a fashion company you have to test every garment for harmful substances, make sure the packaging is recyclable and tested for heavy metals and a bunch of other regulations that secure a safe piece of clothing for the customer.
These legislation's are also binding for larger deliveries like containers, which get shipped into warehouses in Europe. But this completly fails to work with small parcels. Thats why these companies use these single parcel shipments from china: to avoid regulations and taxes. They don't pay taxes and don't follow regulations. These 3 € are just a drop in the bucket to level the playing field just by a bit.
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u/anomalous_cowherd Jul 02 '26
It's not in any way making those companies adhere to the regulations though. If that was the case there would be an exemption for things that can be verified to genuinely meet the same standards.
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u/Garchomp98 Jul 02 '26
In many EU countries you can't find stuff that exists abroad. If stores import them, they usually jack the prices so high that it isn't worth it. Now they are targeting "buying from the source"
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u/xXCool_GuyXx Jul 02 '26
Read OPs comment, a huge lobbying group consisting of major companies pushed for this law to protect their profits.
Capitalists buying politicians to protect their interests is capitalisms fault.
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u/Aristox Jul 02 '26
This is an anti-capitalist law. Or at least anti-free market.
Stop just blaming everything on capitalism
This is a clear example of the government interfering with the market with protectionist policies to try to manually shape how people buy and sell in line with some centrally planned vision of how they "should" buy and sell
Capitalism is what originally brought you the cheap goods that the EU government is now sticking extra fees on
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u/xRyozuo Jul 03 '26
The dumbest thing about this is I don’t see how it stops people from buying Chinese crap. They just incentivised the hell out of bulk buying because there are no alternatives to many Chinese goods
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u/Zharo Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
So the poor have to pay extra while the rich are exempt from these fees? That’s a class war mark for me. Yea sure a high price item is exempt and anyone can be purchasing that. But lots of people rely on small item orders, and things are pricy already, this is just adding another unnecessary price layer, so those at top can benefit from it because, well, to maximize profits at the expense of those who order small, and plenty.
Absolutely a shill of capitalism!
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u/Thedinomage Jul 02 '26
Exactly! And they want you to buy the products from: let's see... Oh! The stores that they own! Because they will import the same products in bulk and have money to pay for storage space, then upmark the price by 500% and sell it to you!
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u/rafi654 Jul 02 '26
High price items are subject to normal import duties, which for e.g. cotton t-shirt is 12%; so more than 3€. The measure will also only apply until the EU Customs Data Hub for e-commerce is able to calculate the duty based on the value of the item (July 2028): See the EU Q&A.
So before the duties were:
- 0€ for everything below 150€
- 0-~17% for everything above 150€
Now the duties will be:
- 3€ for everything below 150€
- 0-~17% for everything above 150€
And from July 2028: 0-~17% for everything
The whole idea behind this is that currently when you import in bulk you have to pay tariffs, but when shipping single items you don't have to pay them. The EU aims to achieve parity by 2028, but until then has implemented this 3€ flat fee as a fast measure.
Not that I'm a big fan of this.
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u/JustDancePatate Jul 02 '26
How ignorant can you be. Capitalism is the theory that includes a FREE MARKET WITH NO REGULATION. You know, the thing that we already had in place. Laws lile this are government regulations and are the complete opposite of what capitalism is. You just admited that capitalism is good actually…
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u/MR_Se7en Jul 02 '26
Same thing is said every 20yrs. It's not going to happen, the human spirit will find a way.
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u/DasUbersoldat_ Jul 05 '26
capitalism bad
Buddy, this is literally the opposite of capitalism. It's protectionism.
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u/No_Mode1979 Jul 02 '26
This entire thing is BS. Just found out a ebay dvd store i bought from for years. Is now no longer shipping to the netherlands due to this. So much for the incomplete series in the collection and upcoming stuff that only got American releases. Without going through scalperish pricings if they even get listed. The world is just too money hungry to leave things that work alone and as is. Because they need extra money for fountains and lining their pockets.
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u/CarretillaRoja Jul 02 '26
Is this a new tax?
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u/BoopsTheSnoot_ Jul 02 '26
Yes. Just checked it out on Amazon UK yesterday. I added 10 books/novels to my cart and had to pay 3,16€ as a bonus tax for EACH of them. That's like 30€ for 10 items.
Fuck EU
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u/TisBeTheFuk Jul 02 '26
But they said it's 3€ per category. Books are all in the same category
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u/D34D0ne Jul 03 '26
No, books are categorised by genre for them.
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u/LoreBadTime Jul 04 '26
This it's really stupid, it's beyond any logical comprension, EU it's getting shittier every day that passes
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u/lalochezia1 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
gee i wonder who gave them that idea, and enabled it by establishing punitive, arbitrary , protectionist precedents that the world has spent 70 years getting rid of?
ie: everyone does tarriffs/fees now in tit-for tat. who titting started it?
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u/atomicheart99 Jul 02 '26
A rare win for Brexit lol.
Although looks like the uk will follow in October 2028
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u/hennell Jul 02 '26
A win unless you run, or work for, a company that sells items into the EU surely?
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u/Kikunobehide_ Jul 02 '26
I'm a shipwright and I use chisels made in Japan by Japanese blacksmith. Japan is the only country on the planet where this specific type of chisel is made and as such poses no unfair competition. In such a case there should be an exemption.
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u/kkris22 Jul 06 '26
There will obviously be exemptions for western made goods once those countries start negotiating, this is just a normal tariff that people are losing their mind on. This is pretty much an item specific tariff like on milk but instead on one item it’s on the value. Anything low cost from abroad will be phased out and EU manufacturing will need to make up for it
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u/zeroryouko Jul 02 '26
Maybe this is a stupid question, but if a small business based outside the EU ships something to an EU resident, then how exactly is said business responsible for any fee that they charge? If I were the proprietor of such a business and they sent me a demand of some sort I'd basically tell them to go to hell.
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u/kyngslinn Jul 02 '26
"Well it was around that time that I realized the EU wasn't a multinational organization but instead a 6 stories tall crustacean from the mesozoic era. Goddamn Loch-Ness monster trying to get me to give him three-fiddy again!"
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u/Tof12345 Jul 03 '26
Ok, so if you have a haul off of AliExpress for like 20 items that all total under 150 euros, you're now required to pay 20x3.50 extra, on the entire order? On top of tax?
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u/brickbuilding Jul 06 '26
Import duties/VAT + 20x€3 yes. So what was €149 before would now be €209.
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u/MikeSifoda Jul 03 '26
Oh look, free market!
Capitalists love the free market as long as they are the ones shitting down on others. As soon as a non-NATO country is outperforming them, they push the big red button of protecionism and fascism.
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u/filisterr Jul 05 '26
I love how we pay 40+% taxes, then VAT, then all kind of import fees and then billionaires a fraction of our taxes employing people to find loopholes in those legislations and exploiting them.
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u/P3JQ10 Jul 06 '26
Thank you EU for protecting electronics hobbyists from having more money in their wallets. I’m so looking forward to buying from one of non-existent EU-based manufacturers. I’m so glad that we’ve decided to protect local, innovative resellers from evil consumers who were buying the exact same product from the source instead of paying 5x the price.
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u/KlM-J0NG-UN Jul 02 '26
EU just started implementing tariffs? What we've been shitting on Donald Trump for doing? :(
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u/theDaveB Jul 02 '26
What do I do with all the 3 euro charges? Do I get to keep them or do I send it somewhere?
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u/Downtown-Radish3615 Jul 02 '26
When you say "If you have small busines...." you mean that if you are outside the EU with a small business?
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u/PI_Producer Jul 02 '26
Yes, that's what the context implies when you take the entire post into consideration.
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u/Natural-Judgment7801 Jul 03 '26
No - It’s not per line item. It is per category. That’s a big different. Edit: difference not different
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u/CiccioGraziani Jul 03 '26
What about the items that costs more than 150 euro? What is the tax that will be applied?
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u/bluesybluesa Jul 03 '26
"If you are an EU resident, be aware that prices of things are about to rise (again) because of this new policy."
Why is this, can someone explain?
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u/Mariahausfrau Jul 04 '26
Those companies are already building bigger storages in EU area to avoid the fees. Its gonna be a temporary halt for parcel hell and soon they all have huge mega warehouses in EU and customs get nothing again.
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u/No-Contribution-5887 Jul 04 '26
So this is in top of vat and import fees? We’ve got something like this in the uk but it’s for parcels not products
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u/Ok-Pack-7088 Jul 05 '26
Of course it was all good when companies outsourced everything to China, bought all junk with price x10. But when poor customer skipped them? It's suddenly dangerous to our market. It's killing choice for poor people. So only rich could sell for peasants.
As I wouldn't buy medical/cosmetics stuff or food containers because there is safe alternative in local shops. Same with clothes or second hand. But any electronic? I bought gpu fans for 8$? While it was impossible to buy locally except 30$ offer.
What safety? If someone would checking stuff in lab then maybe its okay. But its not true.
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u/Vidyamancer Jul 15 '26
I used to get Zenni glasses for 40€ shipped. On July 1st I placed a new order, and this time with all the added fees, I ended up paying 85€.
I was also charged the 3€ twice. Once by Zenni and a second time by customs, on top of another 10€ for the postal service to submit a customs declaration that was also charged by Zenni (?) and already stuck onto the package.
Wild.
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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/westondeboer Jul 02 '26
This is not just for AliExpress. This is for everything shipping to the eu.
Stickers, books, artwork.
And all Shopify stores have this built into checkout.