The European Union has reached a provisional agreement on a major customs overhaul that will shift more responsibility to online platforms selling into the bloc, as Brussels tries to stem the flow of unsafe and non-compliant low-value imports. The reform is aimed particularly at the rapid growth in direct-to-consumer e-commerce shipments, many of them from outside the EU.
The European Union has agreed on a broad reform of its customs system, in a move designed to tighten controls on unsafe goods, improve duty collection and respond to the vast increase in low-value parcels entering the bloc through online shopping platforms. The agreement, reached by the Council and the European Parliament on 26 March, is one of the most extensive changes to the EU customs framework since the customs union was created in 1968.
At the centre of the reform is a shift in responsibility for distance sales into the EU. Under the agreed text, platforms and sellers using e-commerce channels to ship goods directly to EU consumers will be treated as the importer of the goods, making them responsible for customs formalities and payments rather than the final consumer. The package also introduces financial penalties for e-commerce operators that systematically fail to meet their customs obligations. Reuters reported that repeated breaches could lead to fines of between 1 and 6 per cent of annual EU sales over the previous 12 months.
The reform comes after a sharp rise in the number of small parcels entering the EU market. Reuters reported that the total reached 5.8 billion in 2025, adding to pressure on national customs services and market-surveillance authorities. The Council said the new framework is intended to give the Union a more modern set of tools to cope with rising trade volumes, especially in e-commerce, and with the growing number of EU standards that have to be checked at the border.
A key commercial change is the move away from the current treatment of low-value parcels. Reuters reported that the EU plans to scrap the customs duty exemption for parcels valued below €150, a rule that has helped fuel the expansion of platforms sending packages directly to consumers from outside the bloc. The Council said the new rules will introduce an EU-wide handling fee for small parcels, while Commission material says the level of that fee will be set by delegated act and applied by member states no later than 1 November 2026.
The customs package also includes a more structural overhaul of how information is collected and assessed. The Council said a new EU customs data hub will become the single online environment for customs data, allowing businesses to submit information once rather than dealing separately with multiple national systems. The data hub is due to become operational for e-commerce goods on 1 July 2028, with a phased rollout extending to all goods movements by 1 March 2034.
Oversight of that system will sit with a new EU Customs Authority, which will be based in Lille. According to the Council, the authority will support national customs offices by analysing real-time import and export data, helping identify higher-risk consignments, coordinating risk criteria and supporting EU-level customs crisis management. Authority will have around 250 staff.
The Commission and member states have tied the reform directly to product-safety concerns. Reuters reported that a recent Commission study found that 60 to 65 per cent of imported cosmetics, food supplements and personal protective equipment examined did not comply with EU safety rules. The Council said that, in 2024 alone, EU customs authorities detected 64,000 cases of goods posing a health risk to consumers and detained 112 million counterfeit items.
For Brussels, the customs overhaul is both a consumer-protection measure and a competitiveness issue. EU officials have argued that traditional retailers and importers operating through bulk shipments have long faced a different compliance burden from direct-to-consumer online sellers. By making platforms more directly responsible for customs and safety obligations, the EU is attempting to narrow that gap while strengthening enforcement against goods that should not reach the single market.
The agreement is still provisional. The Council and Parliament said technical work will continue before final adoption by the co-legislators. Once the legislation is formally adopted and published in the Official Journal, the new customs rules will begin applying 12 months later, although some of the major system changes will be phased in over a longer period.
