Source: European Parliament
The Commission’s Communication on a Comprehensive EU Toolbox for Safe and Sustainable E-commerce[1], proposes a series of measures to address challenges posed by e-commerce imports aiming to bring a level playing field based on effective customs, tax and safety controls and sustainability standards by using the tools at its disposal, and by proper coordinated enforcement of EU legislation. In this regard, the Commission calls on the co-legislator to swiftly adopt the customs reform and to reinforce it with a handling fee on e-commerce parcels.
During the ongoing negotiations on the Customs Reform proposal, the Council is making progress in getting to a common approach ahead of trilogue negotiations, with the view of an adoption in 2025. In addition, the Commission is willing to bring forward the parts of the customs reform related to e-commerce, in particular the establishment of the EU Customs Authority and preparations for the EU Customs data hub for e-commerce to a date earlier than 2028.
In the meantime, the Commission will coordinate intensified customs and market surveillance authorities controls on e-commerce as part of the Priority Control Area and as a horizontal Coordinated Activity for the Safety of Products as announced in the communication.
The Commission is willing to explore with the co-legislators the introduction of such a fee to address the scaling costs of supervising the compliance of huge amounts of individual parcels. This fee should be internalised by the retailers and intermediaries, thus by the importer, i.e. the online retailer or intermediary, and not by the EU consumers.
- [1] COM(2025)0037 final https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e-commerce-communication-comprehensive-eu-toolbox-safe-and-sustainable-e-commerce .