EU's new customs fee effectively shuts out U.S. small businesses
The EU's extra fee on low-value packages, combined with VAT collection overhead, makes it unaffordable for smaller U.S. sellers to ship to European customers.
What to know
- The EU ended de minimis exemptions and added a €3+ mandatory customs fee per package under €150, combined with VAT collection requirements that vary by member state.
- Small U.S. businesses now face prohibitive shipping costs and administrative overhead, making EU markets effectively inaccessible for modestly priced goods.
- The policy mirrors the U.S. administration's 2025 elimination of its own de minimis threshold, though Fleishman argues the EU rules were too broad and should target Chinese sellers specifically rather than all low-value imports.
The dispute Whether the EU's blanket de minimis elimination and fee structure are proportionate responses to de minimis abuse by Chinese retailers, or overbroad protectionism that unfairly penalizes legitimate U.S. small sellers. · positions read across 12 posts and comments
The EU's rules are justified but poorly designed, hitting U.S. small sellers instead of the true target.
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“If these new rules were prompted by Chinese companies like Temu taking advantage of de minimis shipping exceptions, the new rules ought to apply only for items arriving from China.”
Glenn Fleishman · Daring Fireball / Glenn Fleishman's blog ↗
The EU and China are both bad actors in international trade, justifying the skepticism about tariff criticism.
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“Fascinating tidbit here that shows how the EU and China are both bad actors in their own ways in international trade, despite all the disproportionate hysteria about U.S. tariffs”
eARCwelder · Mastodon ↗
“If these new rules were prompted by Chinese companies like Temu taking advantage of de minimis shipping exceptions, the new rules ought to apply only for items arriving from China.”
Glenn Fleishman, U.S. small business owner · Daring Fireball ↗ · Sep 20
Glenn Fleishman U.S. small business ownerEuropean Union Regulatory authority
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Fleishman details the administrative and cost burden on small sellers
Fleishman argues the new customs fee is a separate pathway duplicating VAT collection and amounts to a protectionist overhead tax on imports. Shipping costs have become unaffordable for modestly priced items, and most small U.S. businesses may stop serving EU addresses rather than absorb the fees.
“The new customs fee is ridiculous, because it's a separate pathway to pay for the same point of entry.”
— Glenn Fleishman -
I volunteer with a small US-based non-profit publisher [0], and this all matches my experience. We publish black-and-white technical journals that are worth almost nothing, and our European subscribers have occasionally been charged 20€ per copy by their customs authorities [1].We're now prepaying the duties, which seems to have solved that…
2 more of the top 3 · 12 posts in this stretch
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Fascinating tidbit here that shows how the EU and China are both bad actors in their own ways in international trade, despite all the disproportionate hysteria about U.S. tariffs https:// daringfireball.net/linked/2026 /09/21/fleisnman-eu-shipping
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As someone who buys a lot internationally (because fuck localized media), this has been really annoying. Already had packages that the seller either couldn't ship or which returned all the way around the world. All this ends sup doing is consoldating international commerce even further as eBay and Amazon happily handle this mess for the seller…
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background
EU eliminates de minimis and adds €3+ customs fee — The EU ended de minimis shipping exemptions for packages under €150 and introduced a mandatory customs fee of at least €3 per package, along with VAT collection requirements that vary by member state. Businesses must now hire specialty firms to handle tax collection and customs clearance.
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background
U.S. eliminates de minimis shipping exemption — The current U.S. administration ended de minimis shipments, raising the threshold from $800 and eliminating duty waivers for low-cost packages. This followed Congressional pressure and a rise in de minimis packages from 140 million annually in 2015 to over 1.3 billion by 2024.
What people are saying 9 voices from 1 site · best of 12 · verbatim
- Will the EU eventually carve out exemptions for small U.S. businesses, or is the policy designed to broadly reduce EU imports?
- How will Kickstarter campaigns and other crowdfunding platforms handle the new compliance burden for international shipping?
- Sep 22
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Small businesses in the EU can't ship to the EU.These new waste charges require administration that put a de facto floor on minimum monthly sales of €300-1500 per-country just to cover PPWR costs. It's insanity.
- Sep 21
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Small datapoint for me as a non-business entity going the opposite direction. I sell vinyls on Discogs and the last time someone purchased a vinyl from the US I was told I am classed as a business so I had to sign up with some private business which was a customs clearing company. They charged a flat fee and then a daily $1 charge for the entire…
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I used to manufacture specialized consumer electronics in Shenzhen and sell them worldwide through Etsy. When Britain left the EU I stopped shipping to the UK rather than deal with VAT. I eventually stopped shipping outside the US altogether because shipping and administrative costs ate all the profit. When tariffs on Chinese goods went over 100%…
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The EU closed a tax loophole, and I'm happy to support small local businesses over people shipping things from overseas. I'm sure there are edge cases, but overall I don't see an issue here.
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> This is a story of the end of de minimis shipping, which figuratively means “too small to trifle with.”Didn't the US also end de minimis exceptions recently? Can we really expect other countries and economic zones to keep them if we don't?
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These fees were sucessfully lobbied in the media as a "Temu tax", and even reputable state broadcasters continue to refer to it as a "junk fee". However, it applies indiscriminately to everything from a decades old vintage book purchased from the UK, or spare parts to restore electronics ordered from Japan.
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I get that it is a shame for you personally. Despite this I think high processing fees are good. First of all, it addresses the issue of people in the EU importing things we really do not need. Secondly, if it is something you really want then it can be imported at a noticible (but managable) premium. If the set of die are special, then paying 3…
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Fwiw, non us businesses have the same problem trying to ship to the us. It’s how governments want to roll now and how they generate counter actions.
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This is not a tariff issue, unbelievably, but one about reducing competition.I’m not sure I’m following the argument here, because tariffs are all about protectionism, which is a form of reducing external competition