How much is the new EU handling fee on parcels?

Not yet set. The agreed text leaves the level to a Commission delegated act, tied to the cost customs authorities incur processing a consignment. Around €2 has circulated widely in trade reporting, but no figure is law until the delegated act is adopted. Member states apply it no later than 1 November 2026.

Is the handling fee the same as the €3 flat duty?

No. They are separate charges with separate legal bases. The €3 is a temporary customs duty under Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382, running to 1 July 2028. The handling fee is a charge for processing the consignment, introduced by the customs reform, and it is not time-limited in the same way.

When does the Customs Data Hub become mandatory?

Under the agreed reform, 2034 — not 2038 as the 2023 proposal envisaged. It opens for e-commerce on 1 July 2028 and to other traders voluntarily from 2031.

The customs reform is agreed: a handling fee by November, and the Data Hub calendar moves

The customs reform this site has been treating as pending is agreed. Council and Parliament reached political agreement on 26 March 2026 on the overhaul of the Union Customs Code — the Council calls it the greatest reform since the Customs Union was created in 1968 — and the agreed text answers two questions this site has been flagging as open.

The handling fee is no longer hypothetical

The agreed text introduces a handling fee, collected by customs authorities, on small consignments sold by distance selling. Two things about it matter for anyone shipping into the EU.

The date is a backstop, not a target. Member states apply the fee no later than 1 November 2026. It can arrive sooner.

The amount is not set. The level goes into a Commission delegated act, tied to the cost customs authorities incur in releasing a consignment — the IT and staff time behind data checks, risk analysis and documentary or physical controls. Trade reporting has settled on about €2 per parcel, and that number is worth planning around, but it is not law until the delegated act is adopted. Anyone quoting €2 as a fixed charge today, this site included in July, is quoting an expectation.

It is a separate charge from the €3 flat duty, which has its own legal basis in Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 and runs to 1 July 2028. A low-value parcel from November therefore carries import VAT, the €3 per item, and a handling fee per consignment.

Platforms are the importer

The agreement confirms the deemed-importer construction: platforms and distance sellers selling into the EU are treated as the importer of the goods and carry the customs formalities and payments, rather than the consumer receiving the parcel. They inform customs through the Data Hub about sales as they happen. This is the liability shift the €150 exemption piece described as the durable part of the 2026 changes, now fixed in the agreed text rather than proposed.

The Data Hub calendar moved, and this site had the old one

The 2023 proposal put the Data Hub at 2028 for e-commerce, 2032 for other traders on a voluntary basis, and 1 January 2038 for mandatory use. Those were the dates in our Data Hub explainer and on the timeline until today. The agreed reform is faster at the back end:

Milestone	Agreed	Was, in the 2023 proposal
EU Customs Authority begins work	2027	2028
Data Hub for e-commerce	1 July 2028	2028
Data Hub for other traders, voluntary	2031	2032
Data Hub mandatory	2034	1 January 2038

Four years came off the mandatory date. A trader planning capital expenditure on customs systems against 2038 is planning against a number that no longer exists. Reporting on the agreed text describes the final phase as a staged rollout completing on 1 March 2034; that day-level detail rests on secondary sourcing until the regulation is published.

What is still not done

The political agreement is not the law. The text has to be formally adopted by both institutions and published in the Official Journal, and it enters into force twenty days after publication, with the operational milestones running from there. Two specific things remain genuinely open:

The handling fee level, until the delegated act is adopted.
Whether the €3 flat duty is extended beyond 1 July 2028. The agreed text allows for it, and the Data Hub’s readiness for parcel-level tariff classification is what will decide it.

For a seller, the near-term planning items are unchanged in kind and larger in number: duty on every parcel since July, a handling fee per consignment from the autumn, EPR obligations per destination member state, and — for anyone established outside the EU — no relief from the authorised representative rule on the table at all.