Billions of cheap parcels flooding in each year, 27 fragmented customs systems, and platforms like Temu and Shein bearing almost no responsibility for what they sell into Europe. The EU decided on 26 March to change all that — reaching agreement on the biggest overhaul of its customs union in over half a century. Whether it delivers on its ambitions is another question.
The reform ends a long-standing exemption: packages worth less than €150 entering the EU faced no customs duty at all. A handling fee on small parcels will replace it, with the exact level set by the Commission before November 2026. Platforms that repeatedly fail to comply face penalties of up to 6 per cent of annual imports—and, in the most serious cases, suspension.
The scale of the problem is stark. In 2025, 5.9bn low-value items entered the EU—most from Temu, Shein, and AliExpress. In 2024, customs authorities detained 112 million counterfeit items and flagged 64,000 dangerous products. The current system was never built for this.
A single portal for 27 systems
The centrepiece of the reform is a new EU Customs Data Hub. Companies will submit their data once, to a single digital platform. No more sending the same information to up to 27 separate national systems. That saves businesses time and money—and gives authorities a real-time overview of trade flows.
The hub will go live for e-commerce goods on 1 July 2028. By 2034, it will cover all movements of goods into and out of the EU. Today, 111 separate IT systems operate across member states. That patchwork makes it nearly impossible to track suspicious shipments across borders.
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A new EU Customs Authority will be based in Lille, France. It will coordinate risk management, identify the riskiest shipments, and manage EU-level customs crises. The most trusted businesses—so-called “trust and check traders”—will enjoy streamlined procedures and, in some cases, be able to release goods without any active customs intervention.
MEP Dirk Gotink (EPP/NLD), the reform’s rapporteur in the European Parliament, was direct about the stakes. “The goal,” Mr Gotink said, “is an internal market that no longer leaves platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress untouched while putting massive amounts of non-compliant goods on the European market.”
Platforms as importers
One of the reform’s sharpest changes concerns online platforms. Companies selling into the EU by distance—Temu, Shein, and others—will now be classified as the goods’ importer, responsible for customs formalities, duties, and compliance. They must be established in the EU or represented by an EU-based entity—a clause designed to prevent shell companies.
The new rules also push platforms towards operating EU warehouses, making shipments easier to inspect in bulk. For consumers, the impact is real: fewer counterfeit products, fewer unsafe goods, and a fairer market for European businesses competing against low-cost imports.
Today’s agreement marks the greatest reform since the creation of the customs union in 1968.
— Makis Keravnos, Cyprus’s finance minister
Whether the reform delivers depends on speed. The data hub will not go live until 2028, and full rollout stretches to 2034. “Today’s agreement marks the greatest reform since the creation of the customs union in 1968,” said Makis Keravnos, Cyprus’s finance minister, who chaired the Council. The real test begins after the paperwork is signed.
