In Memoriam — The EU De Minimis Exemption (€0 – €149.99)
Born: 1 July 2021 · Departed: 1 July 2026 · Age: five years of blissful naivety

It is with mixed emotions — and full customs declarations — that we bid farewell to an old friend: the EU de minimis threshold, which for half a decade let billions of small parcels slip through European borders duty-free, no questions asked.

You were generous. Perhaps too generous. Under your watch, a €12 fast-fashion blouse from Guangzhou could reach a Brussels doorstep faster than a letter sent across town — no customs duty, a gentle nod to IOSS for the VAT, and on its way. You were the golden ticket behind a thousand Temu hauls.

The numbers, in retrospect, were staggering: roughly 4.6 billion small parcels entered the EU each year under your protection, a volume so large that customs authorities largely waved it through. European retailers watched, invoice in hand, while their Chinese competitors priced at landed cost and still turned a margin.

The IOSS system, your faithful companion, did its best — collecting VAT on low-value imports with real diligence. But customs duties remained your sacred shield. Until now.

What changes on 1 July 2026

All goods entering the EU are now subject to customs duties, regardless of value. The €150 floor is gone. Every €5 phone case, every €8 lip gloss, every suspiciously well-priced pair of earbuds now faces the same tariff treatment as a container of industrial machinery. The playing field, at long last, levels.

For platforms like Shein, Temu, and AliExpress, the underlying economics change fundamentally. Their pricing architecture was built around this exemption; logistics hubs in Belgium and the Netherlands, optimised to exploit it at scale, now need recalibrating.

A footnote from France

France had already prepared its own farewell gift: a €2 flat fee on small non-EU parcels, meant to offset the administrative burden the exemption created. Poetically, now that the EU-wide reform is in force, that measure is suspended — not because it was wrong, but because the broader regime makes it redundant. The €2 fee steps aside so the customs duty can take over.

It will be mourned by cross-border logistics operators, dropshippers running thin margins, and anyone who ever ordered eight items “to try” and kept two. It will not be mourned by European SMEs, customs authorities, or anyone who ever had to explain to a client why a domestically-made product couldn't compete with a €9 import.

Rest in paperwork.
— The European Single Market, 1 July 2026

What now?

If you're an e-commerce player, a marketplace, or a logistics operator working out what this means for pricing, operations, or compliance — let's talk. The rules changed overnight; your strategy doesn't have to catch up alone.

Get in touch: cyril@cbconsulting-management.com