The European Parliament is scheduled to hold its final vote on the recast Union Customs Code at the Strasbourg plenary on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, closing a legislative file that opened in May 2023 and rewriting how roughly 16 million parcels a day enter the bloc. The vote follows a plenary debate on Monday evening at which Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, speaking for the Commission, told MEPs that the reform would put customs data “under a single roof” and save EU businesses up to EUR 1 billion a year (about USD 1.16 billion at current rates). For US marketplaces, brands and cross-border sellers, Wednesday is the point at which the EU’s answer to the de minimis problem stops being a proposal and becomes law with a calendar attached.
In short
- Vote date: the EPP Group, whose MEP Dirk Gotink negotiated the text for Parliament, says the legislation is expected to be confirmed at the plenary session on September 16. The Council adopted its position on September 3, so Parliament’s approval is the last legislative step before publication in the Official Journal.
- What Šefčovič said on Monday: e-commerce operators get access to the new EU Customs Data Hub from July 1, 2028, other operators by 2031; the Commission claims savings worth up to EUR 1 billion a year for EU firms; platforms and sellers, not consumers, become the importer.
- The EUR 3 duty is working, with a caveat: Šefčovič told Parliament that preliminary data show a drop in low-value parcels since the flat duty took effect on July 1, but that it is “still too early to draw firm conclusions” and that circumvention is being monitored. Belgian and Dutch customs data reported by Euronews show declines of 53% and 46%.
- Two dates matter more than the vote: an EU-wide handling fee on low-value parcels applies from November 1, 2026, and the EUR 150 duty exemption is fully abolished when the e-commerce Data Hub goes live on July 1, 2028.
- Scale of the problem: Gotink puts the inbound flow at more than 16 million parcels a day and 5.8 billion in 2025, up from 4.6 billion in 2024, 2.3 billion in 2023 and 1.4 billion in 2022.
What is Parliament actually voting on September 16?
The text before the plenary is the political agreement that Parliament and Council negotiators reached on March 26, 2026, endorsed by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) on April 16 by 38 votes to 2 with 3 abstentions, according to an ICC Netherlands briefing on the file. The Council formally adopted its position on September 3. Wednesday’s vote is Parliament’s confirmation of that same text; if it passes without amendment, the regulation is adopted and moves to signature and publication.
The EPP Group, the largest group in the chamber with 184 members, published a statement on Monday evening welcoming what it called the “positive outcome” of IMCO’s final vote and stating that the legislation is expected to be officially confirmed during the plenary session on September 16. “I am proud that the new European customs legislation is being definitively adopted and that implementation can begin,” Gotink said in the statement. “This represents the biggest reform of our customs system since 1968.”
The package has three legal components: a recast Union Customs Code, a regulation establishing the EU Customs Authority in Lille, and the creation of the EU Customs Data Hub. This site covered the substance when the Council adopted the customs overhaul on September 3. What is new this week is the procedural finality and the Commission’s own account, on the record in the chamber, of how it intends to sequence the rollout.
Publication in the Official Journal is targeted for October to November 2026, per the ICC Netherlands guide. The regulation then enters into force approximately 12 months after publication, which places the main operative date in late 2027. The pieces that touch cross-border retail most directly, the handling fee and the interim flat duty, run on earlier clocks that do not wait for that date.
What did Šefčovič tell the plenary on Monday?
The Commission published Šefčovič’s remarks to the Strasbourg debate on the evening of September 14. They are short, but they contain the most precise official timeline the Commission has put on the record since the March agreement. He thanked Gotink, the shadow rapporteurs and IMCO chair Anna Cavazzini, and framed the reform as a response to “fragmentation between 27 national customs authorities and separate digital systems” and to a growing list of rules that customs must enforce at the border: product safety, sanctions, environmental measures and trade defence instruments.
The e-commerce passage is the one US sellers should read twice. “Platforms and sellers, not the consumer, will be considered the importer and held responsible for payment of duties and compliance with EU law, with financial penalties for those who systematically fail to comply,” Šefčovič said. He added that e-commerce operators will have access to the Data Hub as of July 1, 2028, with other operators able to start using it by 2031.
The billion-euro savings claim
Šefčovič told MEPs that submitting data once for all operations across the EU “represents significant simplification and savings, worth up to 1 billion euros per year for EU businesses of all sizes.” At current exchange rates of roughly USD 1.155 per euro, that is about USD 1.16 billion a year. The figure is a Commission estimate, not an audited number, and it is separate from the roughly EUR 1 billion a year in additional customs revenue and EUR 2 billion a year in member-state operational savings the Commission has attached to the Data Hub business case in earlier communications.
The ICC Netherlands briefing notes that the Data Hub is meant to replace 111 national and EU customs IT systems with one consignment-centric platform. That is the mechanism behind the savings claim: one interface instead of 27, and the same data reused across entry, import, transit and export. The briefing also flags the risk that new EU regulations keep adding data elements, which could turn the hub into another reporting layer on top of CBAM, CSRD and deforestation rules rather than a simplification.
The parcel drop, with a caveat
On the interim measure already in force, Šefčovič was careful. “Since 1 July, e-commerce parcels entering the EU have been subject to a 3-euro temporary duty. The preliminary data shows a drop in the number of these low-value parcels. While it is still too early to draw firm conclusions, possible circumvention or opportunistic logistics models continue to be carefully monitored.”
The national numbers behind that sentence surfaced on Monday too. Euronews reported, citing Dutch and Belgian customs data, that the number of small parcels valued below EUR 150 arriving in Europe has fallen by nearly 50% since July 1, with Belgium down 53% year on year and the Netherlands down 46%. The two countries handle close to half of the EU’s inbound low-value parcels.
This site analysed how the EUR 3 parcel duty halved the China parcel flow and why part of the decline is a pivot to bulk import rather than a fall in consumer demand. Šefčovič’s reference to “opportunistic logistics models” is the Commission acknowledging the same thing.
Why is the EUR 3 duty a bridge and not the destination?
The flat EUR 3 customs duty per item on goods valued at EUR 150 or less (about USD 3.47 and USD 173 respectively at current rates) has been in force since July 1, 2026, under a Council decision of December 12, 2025. It was designed as a transitional measure: a way to start collecting duty on the 4.6 billion low-value items that arrived in 2024 without waiting for the recast code to finish its legislative passage.
The recast code goes further. It abolishes the EUR 150 duty exemption outright, and the ICC Netherlands briefing puts the date of full abolition at July 1, 2028, the same day the Data Hub opens for e-commerce consignments. From that point, normal duties apply to low-value goods, but through a simplified structure that collapses thousands of tariff lines into four duty buckets so that billions of consignments can be classified without a full tariff schedule lookup on each one.
Gotink’s own phrasing on Monday was that the temporary levy “has already significantly reduced the flow of parcels, but there is still work to be done.” The work he means is the enforcement layer: risk-based checks, the Lille authority and closer cooperation between national administrations. A flat duty changes the price of a parcel. It does not tell customs which of 16 million daily parcels contains a product that fails EU chemical or toy safety rules.
What the four-bucket tariff does
Under the current tariff schedule, a EUR 12 phone case and a EUR 12 cotton T-shirt attract different duty rates and require different classification codes. Applying that logic to 5.8 billion consignments a year is not administrable, which is why the reform groups low-value goods into a handful of simplified duty rates. Platforms gain predictability at checkout; customs gains a classification it can actually verify at volume. The bucket rates themselves are set in the regulation’s annexes and secondary legislation rather than in the headline text, and businesses should expect detail to arrive through delegated acts during 2027.
What does the November 1 handling fee still lack?
Separate from duty, the reform introduces an EU-wide handling fee on low-value parcels to cover the cost to customs administrations of supervising e-commerce volumes. Šefčovič confirmed on Monday that “as of 1 November, an EU handling fee will also be paid on low value parcels.” The amount is not in the legislation. The Commission sets it through a delegated act, which the ICC Netherlands timeline expects in November 2026, leaving a very short gap between the number being fixed and the number being charged.
The Commission’s February 2025 e-commerce communication floated a fee of EUR 2 per shipment (about USD 2.31), and industry reporting has generally worked from that level, though nothing is confirmed until the act is adopted. A per-consignment fee is regressive against order value by design: negligible on a EUR 90 basket, decisive on a EUR 6 one. This site set out why the EU handling fee is likely to push Temu and Shein local before November 1, because bulk import into an EU warehouse converts a cross-border parcel into a domestic one and takes the fee off the table.
One detail in the final text matters for the largest platforms: Trust and Check operators in e-commerce can benefit from a reduced handling fee, per the ICC Netherlands briefing. That creates a direct commercial incentive to qualify for the new trusted-trader status from July 2028, and a competitive gap between platforms that can meet its data-access requirements and those that cannot.
Who becomes the importer, and what does it cost to get it wrong?
The single largest change for marketplaces is the deemed importer rule. Under the recast code, a platform that facilitates distance sales of goods imported into the EU by non-EU sellers is treated as the importer of those goods. It ensures customs formalities are completed and duty and VAT are paid at the point of sale. The consumer no longer receives a doorstep charge from the carrier, and the carrier no longer acts as the collection agent on those flows.
The liability travels with the transaction rather than with the box. A platform that never physically handles the goods but collects the payment and arranges clearance is inside the regime. Šefčovič’s reference to “financial penalties for those who systematically fail to comply” points at the enforcement design: earlier reporting on the adopted text put penalties at up to 6% of the annual value of imported goods, alongside withdrawal of customs simplifications and restrictions on market access, though the final sanctions core is only partially harmonised and member states retain national penalties on top.
Deemed importer in practice
The ICC Netherlands briefing describes three structural rules that follow from the importer definition. There is always an EU-established importer, so a non-EU seller that is not on a platform must appoint an EU-established indirect customs representative. Each party is responsible for the data it owns. And carriers become gatekeepers, obliged to verify that the importer has filed data before goods are loaded.
That last point means carrier contracts will need to change for any US seller shipping direct to EU consumers, whether or not they sell through a marketplace.
Co-legislators explicitly refused to grant e-commerce flows any simplified customs treatment, per the same briefing. That was a live debate during the trilogue, and its resolution is the clearest signal of intent in the text: cross-border parcels are to be treated as imports like any other, not as a privileged channel.
Trust and Check and the reduced fee
The reform creates a new top tier of trusted trader, Trust and Check, above the existing Authorised Economic Operator status. AEO is retained after business lobbying, but Trust and Check is where the real simplifications sit: periodic self-assessment instead of transaction-by-transaction filing, self-release of goods without prior customs intervention, and in e-commerce, the reduced handling fee. The price of entry is giving customs authorities real-time access to the company’s customs-relevant data.
Applications open in July 2028. Industry groups have already warned that the bar is likely too high for SMEs, and the ICC Netherlands briefing expects customs brokers to step in and offer Trust and Check status as a service to smaller clients.
What is the full timeline from the vote to 2034?
The reform is unusual in having a decade-long implementation schedule written into the primary legislation. The table below consolidates the dates from the Commission’s remarks on September 14, the EPP Group statement, the ICC Netherlands briefing and prior reporting on the Council text.
| Date | Milestone | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| July 1, 2026 | Interim flat EUR 3 customs duty on goods valued at EUR 150 or less takes effect | All low-value importers and platforms |
| September 3, 2026 | Council adopts the recast Union Customs Code | Legislative milestone |
| September 14, 2026 | Plenary debate in Strasbourg; Šefčovič remarks published | Legislative milestone |
| September 16, 2026 | European Parliament final vote (expected) | Legislative milestone |
| October to November 2026 | Publication in the Official Journal; EU Customs Authority legally established in Lille | Customs administrations |
| November 1, 2026 | EU-wide handling fee on low-value parcels applies; Commission delegated act sets the amount | Cross-border platforms, sellers, carriers |
| Late 2027 | Regulation enters into force roughly 12 months after publication; delegated acts for the e-commerce Data Hub targeted March to July 2027 | All traders |
| July 1, 2028 | Data Hub live for e-commerce; EUR 150 exemption fully abolished; Trust and Check applications open | Marketplaces, non-EU sellers |
| 2031 | Data Hub opens on a voluntary basis to all operators | Importers, exporters, brokers |
| March 1, 2034 | Data Hub mandatory; national customs IT systems switched off | All traders |
Two features of this schedule deserve emphasis. First, e-commerce goes first by design. Parcel flows are the highest-volume, lowest-margin, most data-poor part of the customs estate, so they are where a centralised data layer produces the fastest return.
Second, the interval between the handling fee (November 2026) and the full duty regime (July 2028) is 20 months during which the EUR 3 flat duty plus the fee is the whole of the EU’s low-value regime. That is the window in which platform logistics strategies will be set.
How does the EU regime compare with the United States and Canada?
The EU is the third major market in 13 months to dismantle a low-value import exemption, and its design choices differ from the US and Canadian ones in ways that matter for where goods will be stocked. The United States ended its USD 800 de minimis exemption for all countries on August 29, 2025, making every inbound parcel dutiable at the applicable tariff rate, with postal shipments handled through a specific duty per item during a transition. Canada’s counter-tariff measures on low-value parcels took effect on September 8, 2026, with duties reaching 50% on some shipments. The EU’s approach is flatter and slower, but it carries the deemed importer rule that neither North American regime has adopted.
| Element | European Union | United States | Canada |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-value exemption | EUR 150 (about USD 173); interim EUR 3 flat duty since July 1, 2026; full abolition July 1, 2028 | USD 800 de minimis ended August 29, 2025 for all origins | Counter-tariffs on low-value parcels from September 8, 2026 |
| Duty structure on parcels | Flat EUR 3 now; four simplified duty buckets from 2028 | Full tariff rate, including country-specific tariffs | Up to 50% on targeted US-origin goods |
| Per-parcel handling fee | EU-wide fee from November 1, 2026; amount set by Commission | No federal handling fee; carriers charge brokerage | Carrier brokerage fees |
| Who is the importer | Non-EU platform or seller as deemed importer | Consignee or carrier as importer of record | Consignee or carrier |
| Point of duty collection | At purchase, via the platform | At entry, via carrier or postal operator | At entry |
| Central data platform | EU Customs Data Hub, e-commerce from 2028 | ACE; Entry Type 13 mail test from September 22, 2026 | CARM |
For a US brand selling into Europe, the practical comparison is with the checkout tools that have grown up around the American de minimis change. The EU’s insistence on duty being paid at purchase makes guaranteed landed-cost products a necessity rather than a convenience, which is the market FedEx is targeting with its USD 99 Shopify duty-and-tax app launched earlier this month. Whichever carrier or app a seller uses, from November 1 the landed price of a EUR 20 order into Germany includes EUR 3 duty plus a handling fee plus VAT, and from July 2028 the EUR 3 becomes a bucket rate.
What does the vote mean for Temu, Shein, Amazon and US sellers?
The platforms most directly exposed are the Chinese-founded marketplaces that built their European businesses on direct-from-factory dispatch of sub-EUR 150 parcels. The ICC Netherlands briefing notes that Shein alone has 740,000 square metres of warehousing in Poland, evidence that the local-inventory pivot began before the legislation was final. Shein’s position has weakened on other fronts too: its Hong Kong-listed shares fell to a post-IPO low on Monday after a product recall in Australia and New Zealand and a sell rating from Jefferies, and the EU deemed importer rule adds a compliance cost line that did not exist when the company priced its listing.
Temu has followed a comparable path, expanding a local-seller programme that lets EU-based merchants ship from EU stock. For both, the deemed importer designation from 2028 is less of a shock than it would have been in 2023; the economics of the handling fee from November are the nearer-term pressure. Every parcel that moves from direct dispatch to EU warehouse stock avoids the fee, so the fee level the Commission sets in its delegated act is the single most consequential number still outstanding.
Amazon sits in a different position. It already imports on its own account into EU fulfilment centres for most of its European volume, so its exposure is to the Data Hub reporting obligations and the Trust and Check qualification rather than to a new liability class. Its third-party sellers shipping from outside the EU are a different matter: for them, Amazon is the platform facilitating the distance sale, and the deemed importer logic applies to the marketplace.
The local inventory pivot and the competition for hubs
The ICC Netherlands briefing predicts internal EU competition for e-commerce distribution hubs among Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium as platforms convert cross-border parcels into domestic ones. That competition is already visible in the customs data: the Belgian and Dutch declines of 53% and 46% in low-value declarations partly reflect a shift to bulk import through the same ports, not a disappearance of the goods. For US sellers without EU warehousing, the practical options narrow to three: sell through a marketplace that takes the deemed importer role, appoint an EU-established indirect representative and ship direct at full landed cost, or hold stock in an EU fulfilment centre and become a domestic seller.
None of those choices needs to be made before Wednesday. All of them need to be made before November 1, when the fee starts, and reviewed again before July 2028, when the EUR 150 exemption disappears entirely.
What should businesses watch after the vote?
The committee margin in April, 38 votes to 2, points to a comfortable plenary majority. What follows the vote is less settled. The Official Journal publication date fixes the entry-into-force clock; the ICC Netherlands guide targets October to November, but slippage would push the main operative date deeper into 2027.
The handling fee delegated act sets the number that platform logistics teams have been modelling at EUR 2. The delegated and implementing acts for the e-commerce Data Hub, targeted for March to July 2027, define the actual data elements that every marketplace and carrier will have to submit; businesses are being asked to build IT for rules that are not yet final, which the ICC briefing lists as the reform’s top risk.
The Lille authority is the other moving part. It is to start with around 250 staff, scaling to about 500, and it owns the Data Hub, runs centralised risk analysis and monitors the trusted-trader programmes. It does not replace national customs; the first point of contact for any trader remains the national administration. But for a US company with EU operations in more than one member state, it becomes a single point of escalation for cross-border interpretation disputes for the first time.
Šefčovič closed his remarks by promising that “the Commission will report back to this House regularly on the progress made.” The first test of that promise arrives in about six weeks, when the handling fee number lands. The Commission’s public overview of the reform is maintained on its EU Customs Reform page, which is where the delegated acts will be signposted as they are adopted.
Frequently asked questions
When is the European Parliament vote on the EU customs reform?
The EPP Group states the legislation is expected to be officially confirmed during the plenary session in Strasbourg on September 16, 2026, following the plenary debate held on the evening of September 14. The Council adopted its position on September 3, so Parliament’s vote is the last legislative step before signature and publication.
Does the vote change anything immediately for online shoppers in the EU?
Not on the day. The EUR 3 flat duty on parcels valued at EUR 150 or less has applied since July 1, 2026, and continues. The next change consumers will notice is the EU-wide handling fee on low-value parcels from November 1, 2026, which platforms may absorb, itemise or fold into shipping charges.
When is the EUR 150 duty exemption fully abolished?
According to the ICC Netherlands briefing on the agreed text, the EUR 150 threshold is fully abolished when the EU Customs Data Hub goes live for e-commerce on July 1, 2028. Until then, the transitional EUR 3 flat duty applies to goods at or below that value.
How much is the EU handling fee on small parcels?
The amount is not in the regulation. The European Commission will set it by delegated act before member states apply it from November 1, 2026. The Commission’s February 2025 communication proposed EUR 2 per shipment (about USD 2.31 at current rates), and industry planning has generally used that figure, but it is not confirmed.
What does “deemed importer” mean for a marketplace like Temu or Shein?
A non-EU platform that facilitates distance sales of imported goods is treated as the importer of those goods. It must ensure customs formalities are completed and that duty and VAT are paid at the point of sale, with financial penalties for systematic non-compliance. The consumer no longer pays duty on delivery.
Does the reform affect US brands shipping direct to EU consumers?
Yes. A non-EU seller not using a platform must appoint an EU-established indirect customs representative, and carriers will be required to verify that import data has been filed before loading. From November 1 the landed cost of each parcel includes the EUR 3 duty and the handling fee plus VAT; from July 2028 full duties under a simplified bucket structure apply.
What is the EU Customs Authority in Lille and when does it start?
It is a new EU agency that will own the Data Hub, run centralised risk analysis and supervise trusted-trader programmes. It is legally established on publication of the regulation, expected in late 2026, and is to start with about 250 staff, scaling to around 500. It does not replace national customs authorities, which remain the first point of contact for traders.
What is Trust and Check status and why does it matter for e-commerce?
Trust and Check is a new trusted-trader tier above AEO. In exchange for giving customs real-time access to company data, holders gain self-assessment, self-release and, in e-commerce, a reduced handling fee. Applications open in July 2028. Brokers are expected to offer the status as a service to smaller merchants.
Has the EUR 3 duty actually reduced parcel volumes?
Commissioner Šefčovič told Parliament that preliminary data show a drop but that it is too early to draw firm conclusions. Euronews, citing Belgian and Dutch customs, reports declines of 53% and 46% respectively in low-value parcel declarations since July 1. Part of the fall reflects platforms switching to bulk import rather than a decline in consumer demand.