The end of de minimis: what the EU's €3 parcel duty means for Irish businesses buying from China

The short answer: on 1 July 2026 the EU abolished the €150 customs duty exemption for low-value parcels. Parcels from non-EU sellers worth under €150 now carry a flat €3 customs duty, charged per item category in the parcel, on top of the import VAT that already applied. The flat rate is an interim measure, meant to run until normal tariff rates take over in 2028. For Irish businesses buying cheap stock from China in small parcels, the cost per unit has jumped, and the case for one consolidated bulk shipment has got much stronger.

What was de minimis, and what changed?

Until this summer, goods arriving in the EU in consignments worth €150 or less paid no customs duty. Import VAT has applied to every import since July 2021, usually collected through the IOSS scheme at checkout, but duty did not. That €150 relief is what made it cheap to ship single orders straight from Chinese warehouses to Irish doors.

The scale was huge. Around 4.6 billion low-value parcels entered the EU in 2024, and more than 91 per cent came from China. EU ministers agreed to close the gap, and from 1 July 2026 a flat €3 customs duty applies to low-value parcels from non-EU sellers. Irish MEP Barry Andrews welcomed the deal and said the rate should rise if it fails to slow the flood of cheap deliveries.

Three details matter for businesses:

• It is charged per item category, not per parcel. A parcel with three different types of product attracts €3 for each type. Check how your carrier or customs broker applies it to mixed consignments.
• The importer pays. The duty is a cost to whoever is the importer of record, which for a business buying stock is usually you.
• It is temporary by design. The flat €3 is meant to be replaced by normal tariff-line duty rates for low-value goods once the EU customs data hub is ready, currently expected in 2028. A separate EU handling fee on low-value parcels is also in the pipeline, so confirm the current position with your forwarder.

Who does it hit hardest?

€3 is small on a €120 parcel and very large on a €4 one. The businesses most exposed buy low-value goods in many small shipments:

• Irish e-commerce and dropshipping sellers shipping orders direct from Chinese warehouses or marketplaces to Irish customers.
• Small retailers restocking through marketplace apps in frequent small orders instead of a planned shipment.
• Businesses buying low-cost accessories and consumables, such as phone cases, cables, packaging, craft supplies and pet accessories, where each item is worth a few euro.

It barely touches businesses already importing by the pallet or the container. Commercial shipments over €150 were never covered by the relief and already paid normal duty on their commodity code.

The maths: small parcels versus one bulk shipment

Take an Irish online seller who sells 500 phone cases a quarter, bought at €2 each from a Chinese supplier.

Shipped as 500 individual parcels to customers, each parcel now carries €3 in duty. That's €1,500 in duty per quarter on €1,000 worth of goods, before postage, VAT or any handling fee. The duty alone costs more than the product.

Imported as one consolidated shipment, the same €1,000 of goods travels by sea or air freight, clears Irish customs once, and pays the ordinary duty rate for its commodity code. For many plastic and textile accessories that rate is in the low single digits: tens of euro, not hundreds. The seller then ships Irish orders from Irish stock, which is also faster for the customer.

Consolidation has its own costs: freight, a customs broker, storage, and cash tied up in stock. But the €3 duty has moved the break-even point a long way. For low-value goods the question is no longer whether bulk importing is cheaper. It's how small an order can be and still justify it.

What should Irish businesses do now?

1. Audit your parcel volume. Count your sub-€150 parcels from last quarter and the product categories in them. Multiply by €3. That is your new exposure.
2. Price a consolidated shipment. For your best-selling lines, get a quote for one shipment every one to three months: LCL sea freight for a few cubic metres, air freight for fast-moving or high-value goods. Compare on a full landed cost basis.
3. Check your commodity codes. Once you import commercially, your duty depends on the TARIC code. Have a customs broker confirm it before the first shipment.
4. Set up Postponed VAT Accounting. If you are VAT-registered, PVA stops import VAT tying up your cash at the port on a bigger shipment.
5. Buy from the factory, not the marketplace. The €3 duty lands hardest on goods bought at retail-style prices from marketplace sellers. Buying the same product from the factory that makes it, in a planned quantity, lowers both the unit price and the duty cost.

Is this a reason to stop buying from China?

No. It is a reason to stop buying from China the way a consumer does. The €3 duty targets the direct-to-door parcel model: millions of single consignments that each escaped duty. Businesses that buy from Chinese factories in planned, consolidated orders, with proper customs entries, pay the same commodity-code duty they always did.

If anything, the change narrows the gap between marketplace buying and a properly run import operation. A small Irish business that moves from 2,000 parcels a year to four planned shipments pays less duty, holds Irish stock, and deals with a verified factory instead of an anonymous listing.

If you are working out whether consolidated importing makes sense for your range, get in touch. Ériu Sourcing works from Shenzhen and Zhengzhou and helps Irish businesses move from marketplace buying to factory-direct orders, with QC before shipment and a full landed-cost quote before you commit.