EU's €2 parcel fee hits online shopping

What happened

Since Sunday 1 November, goods bought online from outside the European Union carry a new EU handling fee of €2 per declared item, Luxembourg's Paperjam reported. It comes on top of the flat €3 customs duty that has applied since 1 July 2026 to consignments worth €150 or less, so a low-value item now carries €5 in EU charges. On the same day Romania dropped its own 25-lei logistics fee on low-value parcels from outside the EU, Euronews Romania reported.

Who pays, and how it is counted

The fee is payable by the operators responsible for customs formalities, but they may pass it on to customers, either inside the price or as a charge added at checkout, Paperjam said. Identical products can be grouped, but items in different tariff categories can trigger the charges more than once. VAT is charged separately, and a carrier's own customs clearance charges are a separate commercial cost. The €3 duty is temporary and is due to be replaced by standard customs duties in July 2028.

Romania steps back from its own levy

Romania brought in the 25-lei fee on 1 January 2026 for non-EU parcels worth under €150, including orders from platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress. Euronews Romania says it is being dropped because the EU now has a common mechanism, so that similar national charges do not overlap. Fees collected for parcels delivered after 1 November must be refunded within 30 days of delivery. The European Commission points to almost 5.9 billion low-value items entering the EU in 2025, many from China, and an estimate cited by Agerpres puts the revenue from the new charges at about €6 billion a year.

Which shops people trust

A survey for Santander Consumer Bank, carried out by IBRiS among 1,000 adults in Poland and reported by Bankier.pl on 2 November, found that 81% trust large marketplace platforms, and the same share trust the online shops of chains that also have physical stores. Trust falls to 49% for Chinese platforms and to 29% for buying through social media. The most common fear, named by 38%, is losing money to fraud such as fake payment links or goods that never arrive, while 25% worry about leaks of personal data or card numbers.

Why it matters for payments

The new EU charges change the final price at checkout rather than the way people pay. Before a first order with a new shop, 54% of respondents in the Polish survey read reviews and 44% check which payment methods the shop offers; 9% check nothing at all. Because the EU fees may be shown as a separate line at checkout, the total on the screen just before you confirm is the figure worth comparing between shops.

What to watch next

Watch whether platforms build the €5 into their prices or list it separately, whether other member states with national parcel fees follow Romania, and how the plan to move to standard customs duties in 2028 develops. For shoppers, the practical change is simple: an order from outside the EU now costs a little more, even when the item price looks the same.

What it means for Odix Pay users

When you shop online with your Odix card, any EU fee a shop adds at checkout is part of the total you approve, and you can follow each payment in the app, where card controls help you stay in charge. If you also send money to family or pay someone abroad, Odix money transfer handles international money transfer to bank accounts, with the fee and exchange rate shown before you confirm. Availability depends on your country, and fees are shown in the app.