The EU's low-value parcel regime changed twice in 2026, and the second change is the one that hits the invoice. From July 1, 2026, parcels that used to enter duty-free started carrying a temporary flat duty of 3 euros per item category. From November 1, 2026, Regulation (EU) 2026/382 raised that to 3 euros of duty plus a 2 euro Union Handling Fee, 5 euros per declaration line. The charge applies to every low-value parcel, per line, and it applies to IOSS-registered sellers the same as everyone else.
The words matter here. A declaration line is a customs line, not a product and not a parcel. Five identical T-shirts share one HS code and one product description, so they merge into one line and attract one 5 euro charge. A T-shirt and a watch are two lines and attract 10 euros. Quantity does not double the charge. Variety does.
That makes HS6 grouping the one cost control a seller actually has. Group the shipment by tariff classification, merge identical items into one line, and keep the description consistent so customs reads them as one line. The grouping has to be honest: two different products cannot share a line because the seller wants them to. But a shipment of twenty units of one SKU is one line, and a shipment of twenty SKUs is twenty lines, and the difference is 95 euros on a parcel that might retail for less than that.
Run the math before you quote a delivered price. A 40 euro order with four lines carries 20 euros in per-line charges, half the order value, before VAT and shipping. Pre-filing checks with a broker are where this gets caught, and the brokers who work with DTC brands now ask for the HS grouping on the commercial invoice, not just the product list. If your invoice lists products without codes, the carrier's broker groups them, and the broker's grouping is not the cheap one.
The customer sees none of this. They see a delivered price, and if the price does not include the 5 euro lines, the fee shows up at the door and the order gets refused or the review goes up. IOSS collects the VAT at checkout, which helps, but IOSS does not collect the per-line fee, and Shopify's duties feature, when turned on for the EU, handles all taxes on EU orders and stops using the IOSS number at checkout. Pick one route and make the product page say what it includes.
The practical move is to price the fee into the product for low-value EU orders, and to reconsider whether a multi-SKU low-value order to the EU is worth shipping at all. A single-SKU parcel pays 5 euros. A five-SKU parcel pays 25. The fee is small in isolation and decisive in aggregate, and the sellers who noticed it in November are the ones who will still be shipping to Europe in January. Returned imports and drawback are the other side of the same ledger: every euro paid at the border that cannot be recovered is margin, and the per-line fee is not recoverable.
From November 1, 2026, every low-value parcel entering the EU costs 5 euros per declaration line: a 3 euro customs duty plus a 2 euro Union Handling Fee under Regulation (EU) 2026/382. It applies per line, not per parcel.
No. IOSS handles VAT collection only. The per-line duty and handling fee are separate charges that apply whether or not the seller is IOSS-registered.
A line is one HS code plus one product description. Five identical T-shirts merge into one line and one 5 euro charge. A T-shirt and a watch are two lines and cost 10 euros. Quantity does not double the charge.
Group the shipment by HS code and merge identical items into one line on the commercial invoice. A single-SKU parcel pays 5 euros; a five-SKU parcel pays 25. The grouping must be honest, but identical items should never be split across lines.