Europe has taken its most aggressive step yet against ultra-cheap e-commerce platforms originating from China. Starting July 1, 2026, the European Union began charging a €3 fee on every low-value parcel entering the bloc from Chinese online retailers — a move that could fundamentally reshape how millions of Europeans shop online.

A Decade of Duty-Free Shopping Comes to an End

For decades, low-value parcels entering the EU were exempt from customs duties if they fell below the €150 threshold — a threshold that had remained unchanged since 2008. This exemption made it possible for platforms like Shein, Temu and AliExpress to ship individual items directly to European consumers at prices often undercutting local retailers by an enormous margin.

The numbers tell the story of how dramatically the landscape shifted. In 2022, some 1.4 billion e-commerce parcels entered the EU under this exemption. By 2025, that figure had surged to 5.8 billion — a fourfold increase in just three years. The bulk of that growth came from Chinese platforms that built their entire business models around duty-free shipping.

“The exemption was abused and misused on an industrial scale to create a competitive advantage at the expense of EU businesses,” said EU lawmaker Dirk Gotink, who leads the Customs reform topic in the European Parliament. “In a different trading world, this made a lot of sense, but that world doesn’t exist any more.”

How the New Fee Works

The €3 charge applies to each Customs classification category within a shipment. A parcel containing three different types of products — say a dress, a toy, and electronics — would incur a total charge of €9. However, a parcel with multiple items of the same category, such as several dresses, is charged only €3.

This distinction was designed to target the single-item direct-shipment model that has made Shein and Temu so successful: the ultra-fast fashion model that sends one garment at a time directly from Chinese warehouses to European consumers.

The €3 fee is currently a temporary measure. It is scheduled to be replaced by category-specific duties from July 1, 2028, when the new EU Customs Authority is expected to begin operations.

Platforms Scramble to Adapt

Both Shein and Temu declined to comment on the new regulations. However, Shein has been visibly preparing for the change by expanding warehouse space in Wroclaw, Poland. Rather than shipping individual parcels directly from China, Shein is increasingly moving products in bulk to European warehouses — a strategy that could allow it to side-step per-parcel fees for items already stocked within the EU.

Amazon, which launched its own ultra-cheap Amazon Haul service in response to the rapid growth of Shein and Temu, said 97 percent of its EU shipments in 2025 were already fulfilled from warehouses within the bloc. The company added that customers purchasing products shipped from outside the EU would see import charges displayed before completing their purchase.

AliExpress, owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said product listings would carry a “Price includes duties and VAT” label where applicable. For other items, customers would be shown a full breakdown of import charges at checkout.

Impact on Consumers and Air Cargo

The fee is widely expected to translate into higher prices for European consumers. Analysts at Cirrus Global Advisors, led by e-commerce consultant Derek Lossing, estimate that air shipments of e-commerce goods into the EU will fall by 10 to 35 percent in the weeks following the fee’s introduction, with ripple effects likely to be felt in global air cargo volumes.

“When the US ended de minimis, Europe was a really good alternative that platforms could shift to — but now, there’s not a really clear alternative to Europe,” Lossing said.

The United States ended its own de minimis exemption for Chinese imports in May 2025, and for all imports at the end of August that year. The EU’s move puts it on a similar trajectory, closing a regulatory loophole that has allowed Chinese e-commerce platforms to bypass tariffs entirely.

A Broader Shift in Global Trade

The EU decision marks a turning point in the global treatment of low-value e-commerce parcels. What began as a provision to facilitate small personal shipments has become a massive channel for industrial-scale retail dumping. With the new €3 fee, Europe is sending a clear signal that the era of duty-free direct-to-consumer shipping from China is effectively over.

Anh: Mot buu pham from online shopping platforms. (Nguon: Reuters / Unsplash)