Shipping Etsy Orders Into the EU: the €3 Duty, the €2 Handling Fee From 1 November 2026, and the New Customs Fields
2026-10-30
From 1 November 2026, every item an Etsy seller outside the EU ships to a buyer in the EU carries a €2 Union handling fee, whatever the parcel is worth. It comes on top of the €3 customs duty per item that has applied since 1 July 2026 to parcels worth €150 or less. Both are counted per line on the customs declaration, not per unit. The same day, those parcels must also declare product identifiers, and on labels bought on Etsy, Etsy fills them from your listing ID and SKU.
Sources, all read on 30 October 2026: Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 (the €3 duty) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152 (the €2 fee), both on EUR-Lex; the Commission’s Guidance for Member States and Trade on the two charges (version of 5 October 2026), its EU Customs Reform page and its 29 June 2026 news item on the €3 duty; Etsy’s Help Center articles Custom Fees and Physical VAT Collection, Information for Managing International Shipments, How to Purchase Shipping Labels on Etsy, How to Create a Listing and the buyer article Will I Have to Pay for Tax, Customs, or Tariffs on My Order?, all five edited on 29 October 2026; and Etsy’s forum announcement of 25 June 2026, Upcoming fees for buyers in France and other EU countries. This is a summary of those pages, not tax advice.
What changed on 1 July 2026, and what changes on 1 November?
Until 30 June 2026, goods in a parcel worth up to €150 entered the EU free of customs duty. Council Regulation 2026/382 deleted that relief and replaced it, “from 1 July 2026 until 1 July 2028”, with “a customs duty of EUR 3 per item in a consignment the intrinsic value of which does not exceed a total of EUR 150”. Delegated Regulation 2026/2152 then set the new handling fee: “EUR 2 per item”, applying “from 1 November 2026”. The Commission’s guidance says the fee applies “irrespective of the items’ value”, so parcels over €150 pay it too, and that unlike the duty it “is not temporary”.
| Date | What applies to goods sold to EU consumers from outside the EU |
|---|---|
| Until 30 June 2026 | No customs duty on parcels worth €150 or less (VAT still applied) |
| 1 July 2026 | €3 customs duty per item in parcels worth €150 or less |
| 1 November 2026 | €2 handling fee per item, any parcel value; product identifiers enforced on parcels worth €150 or less |
| 1 July 2028 | The €3 duty ends; the guidance says these goods then pay “the normal duty rate”, whatever their value. The €2 fee continues |
The 2028 date can move. The regulation tells the Commission to assess by 1 December 2027 whether the EU’s new customs IT system will be ready, and if not, it “shall, where appropriate, submit a proposal to extend” the €3 duty.
Does this apply to my shop?
It applies when a physical item is dispatched from outside the EU to a buyer in the EU. Both charges are tied to “distance sales”, which the guidance defines through the VAT Directive as goods sent by or for the seller from outside the EU to a customer who is not a business. Etsy says “customs duty is not applied on goods sold within the EU”, so an order shipped from a location inside the EU is not an import. Digital downloads are not goods passing through customs, so neither charge applies to them. A US, UK, Canadian or Australian seller posting a mug to Germany is exactly the case these rules cover.
What counts as one “item”?
An item is one line on the customs declaration. EU law defines it as “one or more goods in a consignment sharing the same tariff classification, description and, where provided for […], origin”. The guidance adds that both charges “will automatically apply per declaration line irrespective of the quantity”. The Commission’s own example: five T-shirts are one €3 duty, while three T-shirts and a watch are €6, because they sit under two tariff classifications.
Etsy has described the count in two different ways. Its 25 June announcement says the fees “will be charged once per unique listing in an order, even if a buyer purchases multiple quantities of the same item”. Its Help Center now says the handling fee is charged “once per unique item listed on the customs declaration, not per physical unit”. These agree when each listing becomes its own line. They part ways when two listings are the same kind of product: the EU counts lines, and Etsy’s customs form lets you define “up to five items”, each with a description, quantity, weight and value. Etsy also says you are “solely responsible” for the accuracy of those lines, so a line has to describe what is really in the box.
What does an EU order cost in duty and fees now?
The table counts customs lines, using the Commission’s rule of one line per tariff classification and description. VAT is on top in every case and is not shown. Etsy charges it at checkout for parcels up to €150, and for parcels over €150 it “will be assessed at the point of entry”.
| Order (parcel worth €150 or less unless stated) | 1 July to 31 October 2026 | From 1 November 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| One art print | €3 | €5 (€3 + €2) |
| Three identical prints on one line | €3 | €5 |
| A mug and a print (two lines) | €6 | €10 (€6 + €4) |
| Two different products in a parcel worth over €150 | Normal customs duty, assessed at entry | Normal customs duty plus €4 in handling fees |
On a €12 sticker order, €5 is more than 40% of the price. That is why the number of lines on your declaration, and who pays the charge, matter more for small orders than for big ones.
Who pays the €3 and the €2, and when?
The Commission says “the seller or importer will be responsible for declaring and paying the duty as part of the customs process”. In practice it depends on your carrier. Etsy’s 25 June announcement said Etsy “isn’t currently collecting the EU customs fee at checkout”, and that the €3 is “expected to be collected at label creation or, in some cases, from the buyer upon delivery”. For the handling fee, Etsy’s Help Center says the same thing: some carriers put it in the label price, others collect it “during customs clearance or delivery”.
Etsy’s buyer article tells EU shoppers the €3 “may be included in the amount paid at checkout or collected upon delivery”, depending on how the seller ships. For parcels over €150, Etsy suggests a Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) service so import charges are paid up front and the buyer does not pay at the door. Etsy says to check with your carrier how it collects each charge. If it bills you at label creation, build the cost into your EU shipping price before the order arrives, not after.
Which Etsy shipping labels are paused for the EU?
Etsy’s labels article says that as of 1 July 2026, “Canada Post and USPS shipping labels are temporarily unavailable for certain EU destinations due to a new EU handling fee affecting some carriers”. Canada Post labels are off for 12 countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain. USPS labels are off for 31 destinations, which is all 27 EU member states plus Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway and Switzerland. Etsy says “Global Postal Shipping labels remain available for US sellers”, or you can buy a label from another provider “until service resumes”.
What are the new product identifiers, and where does Etsy get them?
From 1 November 2026, customs declarations for goods sold online into the EU in parcels worth €150 or less must carry product identifiers “for each item”. The guidance says operators could send them voluntarily from 1 July and that “effective enforcement starts from 1 November”. There are three:
- M-PID (merchant product identifier). Assigned by the online seller, marketplace or platform. On labels bought on Etsy, Etsy sends your listing ID, the number in your listing’s URL.
- NS-PID (non-standardised manufacturer product identifier). Assigned by the manufacturer, producer or supplier. Etsy sends your listing SKU, and “if a listing doesn’t have a SKU, we’ll use your listing ID”.
- S-PID (standardised identifier). An EAN, ISBN or UPC, sent only if your product has one.
You don’t type these in on Etsy labels, but Etsy asks you to “make sure your listing SKU is accurate and specific to the item or variation you’re shipping”. If you buy labels elsewhere, your carrier may ask for the same fields, and Etsy says to use the listing ID as the M-PID and the SKU as the NS-PID. In August we found that Etsy’s API strips SKUs from everyone but the shop owner. On Etsy labels to the EU, the SKU now goes to customs. How to set one per variation is in what an Etsy SKU is and what it does.
What else does the customs form for an EU parcel need?
- A tariff code. Etsy: parcels worth €150 or less “require a 6-digit HTS code”; parcels over €150 need a 10-digit EU commodity code plus the country of origin. Etsy Support “cannot assist with determining the right code”.
- Etsy’s IOSS number. Etsy charges the VAT at checkout on parcels worth €150 or less, and its IOSS number has to reach customs electronically. Labels bought on Etsy transmit it automatically, and it does not print on the label. On other labels, your carrier must transmit it electronically. Don’t write it on the box, but do show the order’s net amount in euros on the front.
- A customs description. On a one-item order, Etsy copies your listing title into the customs description only if the title is “fewer than 50 characters”. A title that uses Etsy’s full 140 characters for search will not be copied in, so you type a plain description such as “ceramic mug” yourself.
Where do Etsy’s pages disagree with each other or with the law?
| Point | One page says | Another says |
|---|---|---|
| Why labels paused on 1 July | Labels article: “due to a new EU handling fee” | The handling fee applies from 1 November; the charge that began on 1 July is the €3 duty |
| Does gift wrap count toward €150? | Seller article (VAT test): value “including gift wrap but excluding delivery” | Buyer article: value “excluding shipping and gift wrap” |
| Is exactly €150 in or out? | The regulation: value that “does not exceed a total of EUR 150” (in) | Etsy’s announcement says “under €150”, and the buyer article “less than €150” |
| How items are counted | Etsy’s announcement: “once per unique listing” | EU law: one item per tariff classification, description and origin, charged per declaration line |
| Which destinations are “EU” | Labels article: paused “for certain EU destinations” | The USPS list includes Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway and Switzerland, none of them EU members |
Where the law and Etsy differ, the regulation and your carrier’s invoice decide what is charged. Etsy’s pages tell you what Etsy’s own labels do.
A checklist before your next EU order
- Ask your carrier whether it bills the €3 duty and the €2 fee at label creation or collects them from the buyer, and price your EU shipping to match.
- Give every listing and variation you ship to the EU a specific SKU.
- Look up a 6-digit tariff code for each product type you sell.
- Write a plain customs description for any listing whose title is 50 characters or longer.
- If you sell from the US or Canada, check whether your usual Etsy label is on the paused list before you promise a delivery date.
Two other EU rules that touch your listings are covered in Etsy’s GPSR product safety fields for EU buyers and what the EU’s green claims rules ban in listings. And if you are writing new listings for those buyers, the free generator at /generate takes a short product description, plus a photo if you add one, and returns a title, 13 tags and a description.