Since 01JUL26, a €3 flat tax fee has to be paid on e-commerce consignments with a value up to €150 entering the European Union. Its impact was assessed during a panel as part of the EU CBEC two-day conference in Liège.
One of the debaters was Kristian Vanderwaeren, Administrator-General of the Belgian Customs Authority, who said that too many products are entering the European Union that are not in line with the EC legislation on non-conformity. The introduction of the fee has had a remarkable effect on the import pattern of e-commerce at Liège Airport, Vanderwaeren said. He explained that the flat fee is levied per product category, as defined in the customs code/tariff line. As for value, customs duties are calculated according to H1, high value goods on which standard duties are applicable, and H7, low value goods, among which e-commerce.
Declaration shift
The application of the flat-tax rule has led to a 53% year-on-year (JUL25-JUL26) drop of e-commerce consignments at the airport, whereas the ‘H1’ declarations have risen by 102%. “The companies have clearly prepared for the new legislation,” said Mr. Vanderwaeren. “The average value of a package has risen from €5.73 to €10.85, which means that the platforms have been pushing their clients to buy more.”
Representing the EC, Karlheinz Kadner expressed his satisfaction about the impact of the rule. He elaborated a bit on the major reform of the Customs Union that will eventually shift declarations made with the customs authority of each individual member state, to a centralized Customs Data Hub. That will have severe consequences for the business, since everybody who submits data to the hub will be responsible, he said. “If the data are not correct, you have to adjust them.”
According to Kristian Vandewaeren, the data hub will be an important game changer, from national to European risk analysis. He referred to the more than 60,000 non-compliant items that have been found at Liège Airport (LGG) this year so far. “We need to reduce this high percentage of non-compliance, and product identification is very important.”
Additional legislation ahead
The latter is one of the two additional points of EC legislation due to be introduced as of 01NOV26. The so-called Product Identifiers (PID) become mandatory for all B2C imports into the EU from third countries. On top of this, a €2 handling fee will be charged on every small parcel.
France, as well as Italy, introduced the flat tax as early as 01MAR26, which annoyed Jean-Marie Salva, specialized in customs law. “The EU is a customs union. If member states start to try more on their own, that is a bad thing. Coordination is what we need,” he said. Mr. Salva admitted that having the right data, as foreseen in the Data Hub, will simplify operations. Mathieu Serafimoff, customs consultant at Sky Forge, also said that the industry needs more data. As for the shift from H7 to H1, which is generating a lot of money, he advocated a step-by-step approach. The economic operators also wonder if differing interpretations of the EC legislation might cause traffic to be diverted to other gateways or even other modes.
