From July 2026, a temporary flat customs duty of 3 Euro per parcel will be levied. The aim is to take swift action until the negotiations on EU customs reform are completed and, as planned, become applicable in 2028. According to data from the Commission, the volume of small parcel shipments has doubled every year since 2022. 91% of parcels come from China. Against this backdrop, negotiations are currently underway on the new EU Customs Authority and the new Customs Data Hub, which will create an IT infrastructure into which all companies importing into the EU will feed their data, thereby enabling more efficient processing.

Mykyta Sobko is a policy officer in the international affairs team at BEUC, the European Consumer Organization, focusing on advocacy in the area of trade policy and customs issues to better protect European consumers. AK EUROPA spoke with him in a two-part interview about how the ongoing negotiations should be assessed from a consumer perspective, where there is opposition to the reform, and what an ideal and functioning scenario for customs reform might look like.

AK-EUROPA: Every day, 13 million parcels arrive in the EU, many of them from Asia, especially China. How do you assess the impact of this, including the perspective of product safety for consumers and environmental aspects?

Sobko: E-commerce has grown very rapidly in recent years, especially since the beginning of the global pandemic in 2019. Today, around 70 percent of consumers shop online every week, which really shows how much purchasing habits have changed. At the same time, the number of parcels entering the EU from outside has exploded. We are now talking about around 13 million parcels arriving every single day, which is 3 times more than in 2022. Customs authorities are overwhelmed with the volumes of these consignments. On average, they can only check around 0.005 percent of these parcels, which is completely different from traditional bulk imports, where one check covers many identical products.

From a consumer safety perspective, this is very worrying. Our members regularly test products bought from large online platforms, and a significant share does not comply with EU safety or environmental rules. Unsafe and non-compliant products can easily reach consumers because the system is not designed for this volume and speed.

There is also a structural legal problem. Under the current customs rules, when a consumer orders a product directly from outside the EU, the consumer is considered the importer. That means the responsibility for compliance falls on the individual consumer, not on the platform or the seller. In practice, this makes enforcement extremely difficult and leaves consumers exposed. That is why the ongoing EU customs reform is so important. We strongly support moving the responsibility to the economic actors who actually control the transaction, namely the platforms or an EU-based representative of the seller. This would be a crucial step to better protect consumers, ensure fair competition, and also reduce the environmental harm linked to this massive flow of low-value parcels.

AK-EUROPA: BEUC visited two of Europe's most important cargo airports, Amsterdam and Liège, and also spoke with customs officials on site. What insights did these visits provide?

Sobko: BEUC had the opportunity to visit two of Europe’s most important cargo airports, Schiphol in Amsterdam and the airport of Liège. Together, these two hubs handle almost 50 percent of all e-commerce imports entering the EU, so they are really at the frontline of this phenomenon. During the visits, we spoke directly with customs officials working on site. One very clear takeaway was that they are fully aware of the challenges posed by the explosion of small parcels linked to e-commerce. They are doing everything they can, often with very limited resources, and they are also actively trying to develop creative ways to identify dangerous products and rogue traders. But they were very honest in saying that the current system is simply outdated and not designed for the e-commerce business model.

What came out very strongly is the need to bring the EU customs system to a new level and to move towards a truly functioning Customs Union. Customs authorities need better legal tools to hold traders and platforms accountable, access to high-quality data to improve risk analysis, and the ability to share information seamlessly across Member States. This is crucial because airports like Amsterdam and Liège may be located in smaller countries, but they are effectively guarding the EU’s external border for everyone. Strengthening every entry point is therefore essential to protect consumers and the internal market as a whole.

AK-EUROPA: EU customs reform has been under negotiation in Brussels for several years. Initial decisions have recently been made. How does BEUC view the negotiations?

Sobko: BEUC has been very closely involved in the EU customs reform from the very beginning. We have followed the process since the Commission proposal in 2023, throughout the discussions in the European Parliament and in the Council, and we are still very actively engaged today. The Customs reform is extremely needed, but it is not a magic solution that can fix everything on its own. Customs is a very complex area, with strong national competences and very different systems and practices across Member States. For many years, customs authorities have largely worked in silos, and there has also been a degree of competition between Member States when it comes to attracting trade flows and infrastructure.

From BEUC’s perspective, the negotiations have therefore been about finding the right balance. On the positive side, both the Parliament and the Council have clearly recognised that consumer protection is a core mission of customs authorities. Recent positions, including in the Council, show a stronger focus on holding traders and platforms responsible and on better protecting consumers. These are very encouraging signals for us. That said, the negotiations are not finished yet, and the final outcome will depend on the level of ambition that Member States and EU institutions are willing to maintain until the end. Different Member States are affected differently by e-commerce imports, which explains some of the diverging views. But overall, what we clearly see today is a shared understanding that these challenges can no longer be addressed at the national level alone and that an EU-wide response is necessary. In that sense, the negotiations do reflect a real shift in mindset, which BEUC very much welcomes.

This interview has been split into two parts. The second part will follow in the next issue of our Newsletter.

Further information:

AK EUROPA: Flood of parcels and dangerous products from online retailers. A visit to Liège Cargo Airport
Arbeit&Wirtschaft: Temu und Co.: Wie der Flughafen Lüttich mit Paketmassen aus Asien kämpft (German only)
AK Upper Austria: AK test: Billig-Onlineshops Temu, Wish & Shein verkaufen gefährliches Spielzeug (German only)
BEUC: e-commerce: new challenges for the sustainable transition
BEUC: Ticking all the boxes for consumers in the EU Customs Reform
BEUC: Under the Microscope: Tests of Temu Products by Consumer Groups