EU €2 handling fee
Amount checked. Start: expected from 1 Nov 2026, pending publication in the EU Official Journal. Legal basis: Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, Art. 20(2) (Union Customs Code regulation establishing the handling fee in Art. 20, verified). Fee act: Commission Delegated Regulation C(2026)6694, adopted 21 Sep 2026, awaiting Official Journal publication.
VERIFIEDGovernment
EU €2 Union handling fee, amount
Legal basis: Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, Art. 20(2) (Union Customs Code regulation establishing the handling fee in Art. 20, verified), says customs authorities shall collect a Union handling fee of a fixed amount per item on goods released for free circulation that were sold in distance sales. Fee act: Commission Delegated Regulation C(2026)6694, adopted 21 Sep 2026, awaiting Official Journal publication. Article 1 sets that amount at EUR 2 per item. An item is a distinct tariff classification, applied per declaration line. It is charged in addition to the €3 duty. There is no €150 cap. It is permanent, not temporary.
Start: expected from 1 Nov 2026, pending publication in the EU Official Journal.
- Dutch Customs and the Commission guidance: 2 shirts + 3 sweaters + 1 hat = 3 declaration lines = €6.
- Scope in the checked sources: distance-sold (business to consumer) e-commerce goods from outside the EU, regardless of value.
- Revenue.ie: it does not apply to gifts between private individuals, and it is non-refundable even if the goods are faulty or returned.
- Lower amounts are planned for goods from EU-operated customs warehouses from 1 July 2028.
- Who pays: the declarant (Dutch Customs). Revenue.ie says the e-commerce seller or the business delivering the goods pays, and they may pass the charge to the consumer.
- Dutch Customs: not part of the customs value. Italian practice puts it outside the VAT base, but that is national only and is not generalised here.
Last checked: 2026-10-19
EXPECTEDGovernment
EU €2 Union handling fee, start date
Legal basis: Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, Art. 287(4) (Union Customs Code regulation establishing the handling fee in Art. 20, verified), says the fee applies 10 days after the delegated act enters into force. The act enters into force on the day it is published in the Official Journal. Its application date was still blank in the adopted text. The Commission guidance of 5 October 2026, the customs-reform page, and Revenue.ie state 1 November 2026. Fee act: Commission Delegated Regulation C(2026)6694, adopted 21 Sep 2026, awaiting Official Journal publication. It was not published in the Official Journal as of 18 October 2026. For a 1 November start, publication would need to be around 22 October. The delegated act is under scrutiny by Parliament and Council.
Start: expected from 1 Nov 2026, pending publication in the EU Official Journal.
Last checked: 2026-10-19
Questions the sources answer
When does the €2 Union handling fee start?
The fee is expected from 1 Nov 2026, pending publication in the EU Official Journal.
Is there a €150 cap on the €2 fee?
No. The checked scope is distance-sold goods from outside the EU, regardless of value. The €150 cap belongs to the €3 duty, not this fee.
What do 2 shirts, 3 sweaters, and 1 hat cost?
Dutch Customs and the Commission guidance count that as 3 declaration lines, so €6.
UNCONFIRMEDGovernment
Italy national parcel charge
Do not confuse the Union handling fee with a separate Italian national charge on parcels of €150 or less. A secondary source describes that national charge. It is not confirmed against Gazzetta Ufficiale or ADM. This site does not state a date for it.
Last checked: 2026-10-17
VERIFIEDGovernment
Product identifiers in distance-sale declarations
For a seller outside the EU shipping to a consumer in the EU, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1022 (Official Journal L, 1 July 2026) requires product identifiers on a distance sale of imported goods. Annex point (2)(a) requires, for each item, the merchant product identifier, the non-standardised manufacturer product identifier, and the standardised manufacturer product identifier if one exists. Article 2(3) applies that point from 1 November 2026. Operators could provide the data voluntarily from 1 July 2026.
- CONFLICT — UPS: UPS says goods under the administrative tolerance do not need PID values, and that the shipper should use a Commodity Category Exemption Indicator.
- CONFLICT — Commission guidance: The Commission guidance says those goods are deemed to comply when the conventional values M-PID and NS-PID are entered in document codes C127 and C128. Follow the carrier's label flow and the Commission text.
- The merchant product identifier is assigned by the online seller, marketplace, or platform. The non-standardised manufacturer product identifier is assigned by a manufacturer, producer, or product supplier and does not follow an international standard. The standardised manufacturer product identifier follows an international standard and is required only where one exists for the item.
- Annex point (2)(a) covers declaration columns H1, H6, and H7. That annex point does not itself set a value cap. Commission guidance (version of 5 October 2026), section 8.2, says the scope is consignments with an intrinsic value up to EUR 150, mainly business-to-consumer, and that the Commission is amending Annex B to say so. Business-to-business flows are in principle outside the requirement.
- The same guidance says voluntary provision ran from 1 July 2026 with no sanction for missing or incorrect data in that period, and that effective enforcement starts on 1 November 2026.
- Guidance section 8.8 gives an administrative tolerance only where the goods are classified under specific commodity codes listed in that guidance. Describing the goods as handmade does not by itself qualify. Classify the goods in TARIC. This site does not state a commodity code for any product.
- UPS says that from 25 October 2026 it will require a Merchant PID and a Manufacturer PID for non-exempt products, and that a shipment may fail UPS validation if they are missing. That is a UPS system date, not the legal date.
Last checked: 2026-10-19
Related: the €3 duty.