EU parcels face 2-euro fee per item group from November

Every online purchase arriving from outside the EU will carry a 2-euro processing fee per item group from 1 November 2026Tulli, regardless of the parcel's valueTulliTulli. Finnish Customs (Tulli) now states the amount — previously announced only as "a few euros", with no figure decided — and confirmed the date alongside the entry into force of the new Union Customs Code.

The fee lands on top of a duty change already in force: since the start of July 2026 every e-commerce purchase from outside the EU has carried a customs duty, where previously duty applied only above 150 euros. The new processing fee extends further — it applies to consignments of any value, including purchases above 150 eurosTulli, whose duty and tax treatment otherwise stays as before (tariff-rate duty plus VAT). Each item group (tavaraerä) — identical products sharing a commodity code and country of origin —Tulli incurs its own 2 eurosTulli: a parcel with a shirt and socks declared as two groups costs 4 euros in processing fees on top of the per-group customs duty, while two identical shirts on one group cost one 2-euro fee plus one 3-euro duty. Declaring identical goods across several groups, which some sellers do for technical reasons, multiplies the customs duty the same way; the pages state the processing fee per group without spelling out that scenario.

The announcements frame the measure as the first e-commerce step of a much larger reform. The new Union Customs Code (Regulation (EU) 2026/2108) entered into force across the EU over the weekend of 19–20 September 2026, replacing the previous Code in stages; an EU Customs Authority is being set up in Lille, France during 2026 to steer and harmonise customs operations, and an EU Customs Data Hub will follow — its e-commerce part from the start of July 2028, with old and new procedures running side by side in 2028–2034 and the Code fully applicable by the start of March 2034. The stated target is the explosion of low-value consignments: EU consumers ordered some 5.9 billion of them directly from outside the EU last year, over 90 per cent originating in China, with a significant share failing EU product-safety requirements.

For practitioners the operational points are three. First, the 2-euro fee is distinct from the 3-euro customs duty per item group in force since July, from VAT, and from Posti's own handling fee — client communications should keep the four apart. Second, goods already customs-cleared into the EU and warehoused for onward sale carry no additional fixed 3-euro duty at purchase; whether the processing fee behaves the same way for such goods is not stated on the pages. Third, IOSS-registered sellers clear and pay on the buyer's behalf, and since 1 July 2026 buyers can no longer clear parcels from such sellers themselves; parcels from sellers without an IOSS identifier are still cleared by the buyer.

Legal basis: Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, Annex B; the wider reform rests on Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, the new Union Customs Code.