The New 2026 EU Import Tax, Explained for Dropshippers

If you're dropshipping into the EU, there's a new cost landing on your desk this year. Starting 1 July 2026, the EU is charging a flat handling fee of €3 per HS code per parcel on low-value imports. It's a temporary measure, set to run until 1 July 2028, but for anyone shipping small parcels direct to EU customers, it changes the math.

Here's the part that catches people out: it's per HS code, not per parcel. If your parcel has three different products with three different HS codes, that's €9, not €3. Bundling unrelated SKUs into one order to save on shipping now works against you on this fee.

This replaces the old duty-free treatment that low-value parcels used to get under the €150 threshold. That threshold isn't gone, but the flat fee applies underneath it now, so almost everything you ship gets touched by this in some way.

What this means for your pricing

€3 per HS code sounds small until you multiply it across volume. If you ship 500 parcels a month with an average of 1.5 HS codes per parcel, that's roughly €2,250 a month you weren't paying before. Build it into your landed cost calculation now rather than eating it quietly out of margin.

The simplest fix is consolidating HS codes where you can. If two of your SKUs are variants of the same product, make sure they're actually filed under the same code instead of two similar ones. It also pays to review your listings for miscategorized products, since an incorrect HS code can trigger extra scrutiny on top of the fee.

DDP vs DDU: it matters more now

If you're shipping DDU (or DAP), your customer is the one who gets hit with this fee at the door, often as a surprise on top of a courier's own handling charge. That's a fast way to generate refund requests and bad reviews. Shipping DDP means the fee is baked into what the customer pays at checkout, no surprises, no refused parcels sitting in a courier depot.

We've moved all our EU-bound fulfilment to DDP for exactly this reason. It costs a little more upfront but it saves far more in disputes and abandoned parcels down the line.

What to do before July

Check your HS codes are accurate and consolidated where possible. Rework your landed cost math to include the new fee. Switch to DDP for EU orders if you haven't already. And build the fee into your pricing rather than absorbing it, your margin will thank you in 2027 when this is still in effect.

This is a temporary rule, but two years is a long runway for a small fee to add up. Get ahead of it now instead of finding out the hard way in your Q3 numbers.