Imagine this: you buy a T-shirt for €12 on an online marketplace. The product is outside the European Union, the parcel leaves a logistics hub thousands of kilometres away and, a few days later, it arrives at your home in Madrid, Paris or Berlin.

It looks like a simple purchase, but behind that order lies an import process — and that process is now subject to new European Union rules.

Since 1 July 2026, what has become popularly known as the “Shein tax” has come into force, a nickname linked to the platform’s low-priced products and high order volumes.

Under the new rules, small e-commerce consignments worth up to €150 and imported from outside the European Union no longer benefit from the previous customs-duty exemption. During a transitional period, the EU is applying a flat €3 customs charge to these imports.

The measure directly affects one of the business models that has transformed e-commerce over the past decade: selling a product from outside Europe and shipping it individually to a European consumer only after the purchase has been made.

But what does that actually mean?

It is not simply a case of “Europe charging €3 for every parcel”. The way the charge is calculated is slightly more complex. Understanding that mechanism also helps explain why Brussels decided to change the system in the first place.

What exactly changed on 1 July 2026?

Until 30 June 2026, goods imported into the European Union in consignments worth less than €150 could enter without paying customs duties.

That did not mean they were exempt from all taxes. VAT, for example, still applied. What existed was a specific customs-duty exemption for low-value consignments.

The original reasoning was largely administrative: collecting very small amounts of customs duty on millions of inexpensive parcels could create more administrative work and cost for public authorities than the revenue it generated.

But the scale of e-commerce changed that calculation completely.

The European Commission estimates that around 5.9 billion low-value e-commerce items entered the EU in 2025, compared with approximately 1.39 billion in 2022.

In other words, volumes increased more than fourfold in just three years.

What began as an administrative simplification for small parcels had become an important part of the international e-commerce economy.

That is why, from July 2026, the exemption was removed and temporarily replaced by a €3 customs duty.

This transitional arrangement is expected to remain in place until 1 July 2028, when the EU expects its new customs framework for e-commerce to become operational.

How does it work? Is it really €3 per parcel?

This is probably the part of the new regulation that causes the most confusion.

The €3 charge applies to each different product category contained in the consignment, according to its customs tariff classification, rather than simply to each parcel or each physical item.

The European Commission gives a very straightforward example:

• A parcel containing five identical T-shirts: €3
• A parcel containing one T-shirt and one watch: €6

The five T-shirts may fall under the same customs classification.

The T-shirt and the watch, on the other hand, belong to different tariff categories.

That also means it would be incorrect to assume that an order containing five products automatically generates a €15 charge.

The final amount depends on what the parcel contains and how those goods are classified for customs purposes.

This distinction may sound technical, but it matters for sellers, marketplaces and logistics operators handling hundreds, thousands or even millions of orders.

Which purchases are affected by the new €3 customs duty?

The rule mainly applies to distance sales of goods imported from outside the European Union in low-value consignments of up to €150.

Take a Spanish consumer who buys a product shipped directly from the United States, China or the United Kingdom.

The product is sold online, prepared outside the EU and then enters European customs territory before being delivered to the customer.

That is the type of transaction at the centre of the reform.

Despite its popular nickname, the measure is not specifically aimed at Chinese companies, nor is it exclusively targeted at platforms such as Temu, Shein or AliExpress.

The rules apply broadly to qualifying imports regardless of their country of origin.

What is very different, however, is the sheer weight of China within this segment of e-commerce.

According to European Commission data, 93% of low-value items imported into the EU originate in China, while China accounts for approximately 78% in value terms.

That explains why much of the public debate around the measure has focused on the growth of large Asian marketplaces.

Legally, however, this is not a “Temu tax” or a “Shein tariff”.

It is a change in the customs rules governing European e-commerce imports.

Who pays the €3?

This is where the difference between how an import works legally and how the consumer experiences it becomes important.

The European Commission states that, as a general rule, the party responsible for payment is the customs declarant.

Depending on how the transaction is structured, that may be the seller, the importer or a representative acting on their behalf.

The consumer would only take on that role directly in relatively limited circumstances.

That does not mean consumers will never bear the economic cost.

The seller may absorb the charge by accepting a lower margin.

The cost may be added to the final product price.

A marketplace may incorporate it into its fee structure or merchant terms.

Or a logistics provider may manage the customs process and pass certain costs on to the seller.

The key distinction is between who is legally responsible for paying the customs charge and who ultimately bears the economic cost.

They are not always the same party.

Why has the European Union changed the system?

Brussels’ reasoning goes far beyond collecting three euros.

The EU has identified several problems that have become increasingly significant as cross-border e-commerce has grown.

The first concerns competition between different business models.

Imagine two companies selling exactly the same T-shirt.

The first is a European retailer that purchases 20,000 units in Asia, imports them into the EU, completes customs clearance and then stores the goods in a European logistics centre.

The second waits until a consumer places an order and then ships a single €12 T-shirt directly from outside Europe.

For years, that second T-shirt could benefit from the customs-duty exemption because its value was below €150.

The retailer importing thousands of units in bulk did not enjoy the same advantage.

The European Commission considers that this difference created an imbalance between e-commerce based on low-value direct shipments and businesses that import inventory into Europe through more traditional channels.

That is one of the main official arguments behind the reform.

But it is not the only one.

A Cainiao employee working at a warehouse in Yiwu, China.

5.9 billion items are also a customs-control challenge

Inspecting 100 containers is one thing.

Processing billions of small parcels is something entirely different.

Low-value consignments represented close to 98% of all individual items imported into the EU in 2025, despite accounting for only around 2% of the total value of imports.

The average value per item was below €9.

That imbalance explains a large part of the problem.

Customs authorities must process an enormous number of declarations linked to goods whose individual value is extremely low.

At the same time, European authorities want to know what product is entering the EU, who is selling it, where it comes from and whether it complies with European safety requirements.

The Commission has highlighted problems involving non-compliant products, incorrect declarations, undervaluation and goods that fail to meet European safety or labelling requirements.

In targeted inspections carried out in 2025 across categories such as cosmetics, toys, electronics, supplements and protective equipment, more than 60% of the products inspected showed some form of non-compliance with European standards.

That is why the customs reform goes far beyond the new €3 duty.

From an anonymous parcel to an identifiable product

One of the central ideas behind the EU customs reform is to obtain better data about the products entering Europe.

From 1 November 2026, certain product identifiers are expected to become mandatory for these e-commerce flows, with the aim of improving traceability and making it easier to identify potentially unsafe or non-compliant goods.

And the transformation will go even further in 2028.

The reform creates an EU Customs Data Hub, a common platform designed to centralise import and export information that is currently handled through different national systems.

From 1 July 2028, e-commerce companies will be required to use this system for their customs operations.

When that happens, the €3 mechanism will cease to be the general transitional solution and goods will instead become subject to the normal customs tariff applicable to their specific product category.

That is why the current rule should not be seen as the end of the reform.

It is a bridge towards a different customs model.

Direct shipping versus storing inventory in Europe

For marketplace sellers, perhaps the most interesting consequence of all this appears when comparing two different operating models.

Model 1: shipping every order from outside the EU

Suppose an Asian company sells accessories to customers in Spain.

When a customer makes a purchase, the order is prepared in China, shipped internationally, enters European customs and is then delivered to the consumer.

Every sale creates a separate low-value international shipment.

The attraction of this model is obvious.

The business does not need to commit large amounts of inventory to Europe in advance.

It can keep stock close to the place of production and ship only what has already been sold.

That reduces tied-up capital and inventory risk.

The trade-off is greater dependence on international logistics and on the customs regime applied to each individual shipment.

Model 2: importing inventory and storing it in Europe

Now imagine that the same seller decides to import 20,000 units into a warehouse in Spain, Germany or the Netherlands.

The model changes.

The goods are exported commercially from China, pass through European customs, are stored in a European warehouse and are then distributed to consumers.

The importation of those 20,000 units is handled as a normal commercial import, with the corresponding customs duties, taxes and regulatory requirements.

But once the goods have been released for free circulation, they obtain Union goods status and can move within the EU customs territory without having to pay import duties again each time a customer places an order.

If a customer buys a T-shirt stored in Madrid tomorrow, there is no new import from China.

The import already took place when the inventory first entered Europe.

That difference is fundamental.

There is also another factor with a major impact on purchasing decisions: delivery speed.

Keeping inventory inside Europe can reduce delivery times to just a few days and, in some cases, allow next-day or even same-day delivery.

That can have a significant effect on conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Could the new regulation make storing inventory in Europe more attractive?

There is no universal answer.

The new customs duty is only one variable within a much broader equation that includes shipping costs, standard tariffs, VAT, warehousing, fulfilment, returns, delivery times, demand forecasting and working capital.

But removing the previous customs-duty exemption does change that equation.

One of the economic advantages of shipping individual orders directly from outside Europe has been reduced.

That may encourage some sellers to revisit a question that previously felt less urgent:

Does it still make sense to ship every order individually from outside the EU, or would it be more efficient to move inventory closer to the customer?

The answer depends on the product and the business.

A low-demand product may still justify a direct-shipping strategy.

A seller with predictable sales and high volumes may benefit from holding inventory inside Europe through faster delivery, less dependence on international shipping for each order, a better returns experience and potentially simpler operations for the end customer.

But that model comes with an important cost.

Inventory must be purchased before it is sold.

Its import, transportation and storage also have to be financed before that money is recovered through sales.

The customs change is also a financial change

This is one of the less visible consequences of the reform.

Moving from an on-demand shipping model to holding inventory in Europe may improve logistics, but it also changes when the business needs cash.

With direct shipping, a significant share of the costs arises after an order has already been received.

When inventory is imported in bulk, the company must commit capital weeks or even months before the consumer buys the product.

For sellers operating on Amazon, Miravia, Kaufland, TikTok Shop and other European marketplaces, that makes inventory management and working capital an even more important part of the business strategy.

The decision is not simply about comparing a €3 customs duty with the cost of renting warehouse space.

Sellers need to calculate the full cost — and the full advantages — of each operating model.

Does this mean buying inexpensive products from outside Europe will stop making sense?

No.

Cross-border e-commerce is not going to disappear because of a €3 customs duty.

International manufacturers and sellers still benefit from major advantages in production costs, product variety, industrial capacity and logistics scale.

Nor will every purchase be affected economically in the same way.

Three euros has a significant impact on a €5 product.

It matters far less on a €120 product.

That is precisely why the new rules are likely to affect different product categories, average order values and logistics models in different ways.

What has changed is one of the rules that helped support the development of low-value cross-border e-commerce as we know it today.

The EU also wants to change who is responsible for imports

The European customs reform approved in 2026 points towards another deeper change: placing greater responsibility for e-commerce imports on the platforms themselves.

Under the new framework, in certain e-commerce models involving goods shipped from third countries, online platforms will increasingly take on responsibilities traditionally associated with importers.

That includes greater responsibility for customs formalities, payment