The EU’s €2 parcel fee arrives in November. Who pays it, and on what.

On 3 September 2026 the Council of the EU gave the final green light to the customs reform. One piece of it lands on every online order shipped into the Union from outside: a handling fee on small parcels, due by 1 November 2026, to pay for checking them. The Council left the amount to the European Commission.

The Commission set it on 21 September in a delegated act, C(2026) 6694: €2 per item, according to the copy registered with the Council and the advisers who have read it. Parliament and the Council have a scrutiny window to object, so until the act is published the start date is best read as expected rather than certain.

How it stacks

• The €3 customs duty on low-value parcels has applied since 1 July 2026, per category of goods in the parcel. The fee comes on top of it, not instead.
• Advisers reading the Commission’s explanatory memorandum say distance sales above €150 pay the fee too.
• VAT is due on the fee itself, as on the duty: the import VAT base grows by it.

What it does to a margin

For a store outside the EU — in the UK, the US, anywhere — selling into it, the fee is a cost of the order line, like shipping or duty. It belongs in the landed cost of each item sold, not in monthly overheads, or every EU order looks more profitable than it is. Two items of the same kind in one parcel now carry €4 of handling and €3 of duty before VAT is added on top.

Worth doing before November: add the fee and the duty to the landed cost of each product you ship into the EU, so the margin you see on an EU order is the one you keep.