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

Source: https://euornot.eu/customs-reform-agreed-handling-fee-data-hub-dates/
Published: 2026-08-14
Section: Customs
Tags: customs, data-hub, handling-fee, de-minimis, deemed-importer, cross-border
Licence: CC BY 4.0 — attribute euornot.eu

Summary: Council and Parliament settled the customs overhaul on 26 March 2026. A per-parcel handling fee arrives no later than 1 November, platforms become the importer, and the Data Hub dates are no longer the ones from the 2023 proposal.

Key dates:
- 26 Mar 2026: Council and Parliament agree the reform
- 1 Nov 2026: Handling fee applies, at the latest
- 2027: EU Customs Authority begins work
- 1 Jul 2028: Data Hub opens for e-commerce
- 2031: Data Hub opens to other traders, voluntarily
- 2034: Data Hub becomes the mandatory single entry point

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](/eu-de-minimis-ends-3-euro-flat-duty/), 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](/eu-de-minimis-ends-3-euro-flat-duty/) 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](/eu-customs-data-hub-2028/) and on the [timeline](/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](/commission-authorised-representative-suspension/) on
the table at all.

## Sources

- Council of the EU — EU customs: Council and Parliament agree on landmark reform, 26 March 2026: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/03/26/eu-customs-council-and-parliament-agree-on-landmark-reform/
- European Commission — Commission welcomes historic agreement to reform the EU Customs Union, 26 March 2026: https://cyprus.representation.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-welcomes-historic-agreement-reform-eu-customs-union-2026-03-26_en — Commission statement of the agreed dates and the handling fee
- DG TAXUD — guidance and legal text on the temporary flat fee applying until 1 July 2028: https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/news/guidance-and-legal-text-temporary-flat-fee-low-value-imports-which-will-apply-until-1-july-2028-2026-06-08_en — Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382; delegated and implementing acts adopted 30 April 2026, guidance published 8 June 2026
- Council of the EU — modernising the EU customs union: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/modernising-the-eu-customs-union/ — file overview and procedural status