EU cracks down on Shein/Temu
European regulators are tightening customs, safety and tax rules for low‑value imports from platforms like Shein and Temu, which will make cheap cross‑border orders more expensive for shoppers. (thelocal.com) The EU has sent a delegation to China to press for action on unsafe products and expects duty‑free parcels to total €5.8 billion in 2025, raising compliance and returns costs for e‑commerce logistics providers. (laopiniondemurcia.es)
Late March brought a political deal to rewrite how small online imports enter the European Union: EU institutions agreed on a package of customs reforms on March 26, 2026, and the new European Union Customs Authority — the agency that will coordinate customs enforcement across member states — was awarded to Lille on March 25, 2026. (consilium.europa.eu 1) (consilium.europa.eu 2) The scale driving the change is large and rising: the Commission reported about 5.8 billion low‑value e‑commerce parcels entered the EU in 2025, a 26% jump year‑on‑year, and earlier Commission figures put 4.6 billion such parcels in 2024 (about 91% of those from China). (uk.finance.yahoo.com) (europarl.europa.eu) As an interim measure, the Commission and member states agreed a fixed customs charge for small consignments: a flat €3 customs duty per item for parcels declared under €150, starting in July 2026; the current “de minimis” rule (the exemption that let small items enter duty‑free) is being removed or phased out. (ec.europa.eu) (kpmg.com) The reform also changes legal responsibility: online marketplaces will be treated as the “importer” for goods they sell into the bloc — meaning the platform becomes legally responsible for paying duties and collecting VAT and for ensuring products meet EU safety rules — and companies that repeatedly break the rules could face fines in the range of 1–6% of their EU sales, per the provisional agreement reported from negotiations. (marketscreener.com) (consilium.europa.eu) Operationally, the package sets a timeline for a centralized EU Customs Data Hub and for the Customs Authority to coordinate risk‑based checks and controls; policymakers expect the data hub and agency to come online in phases (the authority could be operational around 2028 in staged rollouts), which will force more pre‑arrival data on each parcel and tighter, harmonized inspections across member states. (consilium.europa.eu) (euronews.com) A nine‑member delegation from the European Parliament visited Beijing from March 31 to April 2, 2026 to press Chinese authorities and platforms on product safety, traceability and enforcement as the EU tightens controls — those talks followed the customs agreement and underline the bloc’s push to get foreign platforms to provide accurate product data and to police sellers. (europarl.europa.eu) (uk.finance.yahoo.com)
