Italy is charging €2 per parcel, while Romanians must pay a handling fee of RON 25 (€5) per parcel starting from January 1, 2026.
The obligation to pay lies with the supplier, the person shipping the parcel, or the entity facilitating the distance sale through a digital platform. Previously, parcels below this value were exempt from taxes, according to an opinion by Ana-Maria Sabiescu, Director, Indirect Tax, Deloitte Romania.
From mid-2026, a customs duty of €3 for each item imported online from outside the EU will be added to this fee, a provision on which EU member states reached consensus. Under these conditions, the costs of online shopping from non-EU countries will become prohibitive, at least in Romania.
E-commerce has become integral to how European consumers buy goods, with 70% regularly purchasing products online according to EU studies. The number of low-value shipments (below €150) from outside the EU to European customers increased exponentially in recent years. In 2022, 1.2 billion low-value parcels were imported into the EU, doubling year-on-year to 2.4 billion in 2023 and 4.6 billion in 2024. This means around 12.5 million parcels worth less than €150 were imported into the EU daily in 2024.
As a result, the costs and efforts of customs authorities to process such imports have increased significantly. European e-commerce players claim their competitiveness is being affected and have called on European institutions to take measures to protect their rights against external competitors.
EU member states have discussed two directions: introducing a handling fee to compensate for increasing customs supervision costs, and applying a €3 customs duty per item on e-commerce parcels valued below €150 to eliminate the competitive advantage enjoyed by marketplaces delivering from outside the EU.
Sabiescu notes that "marketplaces" quick reaction is needed to assess the impact of the handling fee and to comply, especially after the €3 per item customs duty will also apply starting from the middle of this year.
