The new fees will hit Temu and AliExpress customers. Changes from July

From July 1, 2026, the rules for importing goods from outside the European Union will change. The provisions resulting from EU Council Regulation 2026/382 will come into force, which will eliminate the previously applicable customs exemption for shipments worth up to EUR 150.

For the next two years, until July 1, 2028, a flat-rate duty of EUR 3, i.e. approximately PLN 13, will apply in its place. The change is particularly important for customers of popular shopping platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress.

As Piotr Juszczyk, Chief Tax Advisor at inFakt, emphasizes, the new regulation ends the functioning of the mechanism that for years allowed the import of a huge number of cheap products without additional customs duties.

– So far, shipments worth up to EUR 150 imported from outside the European Union were completely exempt from customs duties. This is the so-called de minimis exemption – it was introduced in order not to burden the customs administration with handling millions of small parcels in which the customs duty would be pennies anyway. In practice, however, it became a loophole. It allowed cheap products to be imported, mainly from China, without the burdens that European importers and stores were subject to. The European Commission decided that in the era of electronic customs declarations, the argument about the “excessive burden on the administration” lost its meaning. Basically, data on each shipment is now available digitally, explains Piotr Juszczyk.

Brussels points to billions of parcels

According to experts, the European Union’s decision is a response to the sharp increase in the number of small parcels entering the common market.

– In 2024, approximately 4.6 billion such small parcels arrived in the EU, almost twice as many as a year earlier. Poland is Temu’s third market in Europe, and the platform is used by over 13 million users. The EU argues that the current exemption was abused by underestimating the value and artificially dividing orders. And this affects the competitiveness of European companies – reminds Juszczyk.

According to the European Commission, the current system put EU sellers in a less favorable situation than platforms operating outside the Community. The new regulations are intended to partially equalize the conditions of competition.

How will the new duty be calculated?

The biggest surprise for customers may be the method of calculating the fee. The duty will not be assigned to the entire parcel, but to individual categories of goods contained in the parcel.

– The fee is charged for each item of goods, i.e. for each customs code in the shipment. And an item is, as explained by KAS, one or more goods with the same tariff classification (customs code), description and origin. This means that three identical cotton T-shirts equal one item – EUR 3 – calculates an expert from inFak.

He explains that the situation will be different when there are different products in one shipment.

– A cotton T-shirt, a wool sweater and a phone case are three different items and only 9 euros. What matters is not the number of pieces or lines on the invoice, but the number of different customs codes in the shipment. In the case of mixed, small baskets, the customs duty may exceed the value of the goods themselves, notes Juszczyk.

This is just the beginning of bigger changes

Experts point out that the new duty does not replace VAT, which will continue to be settled separately. Moreover, from November 2026, further fees will be introduced for handling shipments from outside the EU.

– It’s worth remembering three things. Firstly, customs duty does not replace VAT, it is settled separately. Secondly, this is just the beginning, because from November 2026 there will be an EU handling fee, so small parcels from Asia will be even more expensive. Thirdly, goods shipped from warehouses already located in the EU will not be subject to the new fee. And this may be a strong incentive for platforms to move logistics closer to the customer. For consumers, the practical conclusion is simple: after July 1, it is more profitable to order more products of the same category in one package than to mix different goods, says Juszczyk.

Ultimately, the reform is to go even further. After the launch of the new EU customs data system, the EUR 150 threshold is to be completely abolished and customs duties will be charged at standard rates from the first euro of the value of the goods.

– The change in force since July is not the end, but the first stage of a larger reform of the EU customs system. Polish companies selling in the EU may benefit from this, as the conditions of competition, which for years have been skewed in favor of platforms from outside the Community, are equalized to some extent – explains an expert from inFakt.