A new โฌ2 handling fee will be introduced on parcels ordered from outside the European Union from November.
This is on top of the โฌ3 charge that was introduced in July.
A NEW HANDLING fee to be imposed from November on parcels ordered from outside the European Union will likely apply to each item within a package, a customs compliance expert has warned.
The new fee, which is designed to cover costs associated with customs processing, will likely be โฌ2, but the exact details havenโt been released yet.
The fee will be on top of the โฌ3 customs charge which has applied to every unique item in orders worth โฌ150 or less coming from outside the EU since 1 July, a charge imposed in a bid to improve EU security and level the playing field for businesses.
Customs compliance expert Brian Murphy told The Journal that itโs โvery likelyโ the new handling fee will also be placed on individual items in the parcel.
โThat fee is going to be on top of the customs โฌ3 fee. So, it could double the charges again, potentially, and thatโs very real and coming in very soon,โ he said.
If the handling fee applies per unique item in a package, the cost of each item would increase by around โฌ5 in total after the โฌ3 customs fee is also applied.
Murphy said the โฌ3 fee was just one of a number of changes coming over the next 18 months as part of an overall EU customs reform plan.
โItโs the largest shake-up of EU customs since 1968, and e-commerce parcels are a particular target of this plan,โ he said.
โThe future of e-commerce imports into the European Union is changing dramatically. Itโs not just tariffs or duty anymore.โ
Murphy said changes around classification of the product, packaging rules, deforestation rules and forced labour checks will all converge over the next 18 months to make imports of e-commerce goods โmore complex and more costlyโ.
He previously said that despite the positive intention of the โฌ3 fee, it disproportionately impacts online shoppers in Ireland, largely due to our e-commerce reliance on the UK.
Sinn Fรฉin spokesperson on finance, Pearse Doherty, said news of the new handling fee will โcome as another nasty shock to shoppers in Irelandโ.
โThese fees put all the burden and responsibility on ordinary people and member stateโs postal services, while letting online giants like Shein and Temu off the hook,โ Doherty said in a statement.
โInstead of holding these corporations to account, the EU is dumping all the responsibility on ordinary people by applying badly designed taxes on individual items.โ
Judging by the amount of self service checkouts that are everywhere, im not sure who those "workers" you speak of are.
Are you confusing them with shareholders? Its a common mistake.
Yes, everyone knows that the most important part of the economy is... checks notes... the retail checkout workers.
Remind me again about what workers will be protected by this?
Those producing the stuff competing with foreign imports.
I wonder what percentage of European companies stuff does not say "made in (asian country)" on the bottom. Can't be much.
And measures like this oculd change it.
I dont see how. Measures like this only target consumers, if you buy a container of cheap shit and sell it for expensive nothing changes with these new rules. If you let your clothing be sewn wherever and sell it for expensive in a brick and mortar or local online store, nothing changes either.
That creates jobs already. It cuts dropshipping for instance.
So the money this self checkout saves will be used to discount products I buy, right?... Right...?
If prices influence your behavior, probably. If studies prove that people shop at the same supermarket no matter what, then probably not.
In any case, irrelevant for the broader economy.