Selling to EU and US shoppers in 2027: the per-parcel costs that changed

Since 1 July 2026, a scarf worth €40 sent from India to a shopper in Germany pays €3 of EU customs duty. Since 1 November 2026, it pays a €2 handling fee as well. Before July, a parcel like that paid VAT and no duty at all.

Here is the short answer for 2027. If you sell to EU consumers, budget €5 for every distinct item in a parcel worth up to €150, on top of the VAT you already collect. If you sell to US consumers, there is no duty-free value left. Every parcel needs a customs entry and pays the duty for its tariff code, and from 1 July 2027 that is fixed in US law.

None of these charges depends on the box.

Packaging still moves three lines: your freight, your damage and your returns. And a damaged parcel now costs more than before, because a replacement parcel pays the per-item charges again.

Checked against official sources on 28 October 2026.

I run a packaging company in Jaipur that exports to 20+ countries. Our exports travel as business cargo, so the consumer-parcel rules below do not touch our own invoices. They do touch Indian online sellers, who are the people we make mailers and protective packaging for. I am not a customs broker, so take the method from me and the final word from yours.

What does a parcel to an EU customer pay in 2027?

Four lines. Two of them are new.

The €3 duty comes from Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382. The €2 fee comes from Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2152, and it is due even when no duty is.

Ireland's Revenue adds a detail that matters to anyone who handles returns. The fee is not refunded, even when the goods turn out to be faulty.

What counts as one "item"?

This one definition decides your bill. Under the EU's implementing rules (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1022), an item is one or more goods in a consignment that share the same tariff classification, description and origin.

So five identical goods are one item. Two different goods are two items.

Revenue's example is the plainest I have seen. Two identical pens in one parcel are one item, so they pay €3 duty and €2 fee, €5 in all, plus VAT.

There is one grey area I could not settle from the published texts: one design in three colours. The tariff code is the same, but the description may not be. Ask your customs agent or your IOSS intermediary how they declare it before you build a price on it.

How much is that per parcel?

Four worked examples. Every price and basket in them is an ASSUMPTION, chosen to show the arithmetic. VAT is left out, because you paid it before 2026 too.

Two things jumped out at me when I worked these through.

The charge falls hardest on small baskets of mixed products. A gift box of five different things pays five times what one product pays, while its value is only three times as high.

Multi-packs of one product come off best. Where your range allows it, a pack of two or three of the same item is a cheaper parcel to land in the EU than a mixed bundle at the same price.

Splitting an order never helps. Two identical scarves are one item in one parcel, €5. Sent in two parcels they are two items, €10, and you pay the freight twice.

One invoice point is really a money point. The €150 line is tested on what EU law calls the intrinsic value. For commercial goods that leaves out transport and insurance only when they are shown separately on the invoice, as the Spanish tax agency's guide explains. So put shipping on its own line. A €140 order with €15 of shipping folded into one price can be read as €155, and then the €3 rate no longer applies.

What changed for US parcels, and what happens on 1 July 2027?

The US closed its duty-free door for low-value parcels on 29 August 2025, when the $800 de minimis exemption was suspended for every country. US Customs and Border Protection then made the suspension indefinite in its own regulations, in an interim final rule published on 24 June 2026. On 1 July 2027, section 70531 of Public Law 119-21 ends the exemption in the statute itself.

So 1 July 2027 changes the legal basis, not your bill. Your bill changed in August 2025.

What a US parcel needs today:

1. An entry, formal or informal, with the full value, the country of origin and the tariff (HTS) code.
2. Duty at the rate for that code, plus any additional duties in force on the day it enters. Those have moved more than once, including after the Supreme Court's ruling of 20 February 2026 on tariffs imposed under emergency powers. Look the rate up for each shipping period. Do not carry last year's number forward.
3. Whatever your carrier charges to clear the parcel. Each carrier sets its own clearance fees, so get the schedule in writing.

Postal shipments have two dates. A postal informal entry for items worth $2,500 or less has applied since 24 July 2026. Some mail cannot use it: items under other US agencies' rules, items under Chapter 98 or 99, and items claiming free-trade-agreement treatment. Those need formal entry, and CBP has moved the compliance date for that to 20 January 2027, in a final rule of October 2026.

If you ship by FedEx, there is one more line. From 18 January 2027 FedEx charges $25 when a trade document such as the commercial invoice is handed over on paper, as reported by Supply Chain Dive on 21 September 2026. We have not seen FedEx's own notice. Move to electronic trade documents before that date anyway.

Where does packaging change the cost, and where does it not?

1. Duty and the EU fee: no effect. They are counted on items and value. A lighter mailer saves no duty.
2. Freight: yes. Weight and size still set the courier charge. Our guides on volumetric weight and rate card slabs show where a smaller box saves a slab, and our US courier guide for 2027 covers the 139 divisor.
3. Damage: yes, and more than before. A broken parcel to the EU has already paid €5 per item that you will not see again. A replacement sent as a new parcel will normally pay the per-item charges a second time. Add that line to our damaged delivery worksheet.
4. Returns: yes. The fee is not refunded for faulty goods, so every return caused by poor packing carries it as a loss.

This is where I hold a firm view. When duty and fees are fixed per item, the cheapest saving left is the parcel that does not break. A few rupees more of cushioning on a €40 product protects €5 of charges you cannot claim back, plus the freight, plus the product.

What should you do before you set your 2027 prices?

1. List your top 20 products with their tariff codes: CN codes for the EU and HTS codes for the US.
2. Take one month of real EU orders and count the distinct items per parcel. That number, times €5, is your new charge per parcel.
3. Decide who carries it. Build it into the price, or show it at checkout. Our guide on building shipping into the price has the margin test.
4. Review your bundles. Where you can, offer multi-packs of one item instead of mixed sets.
5. Show shipping on its own invoice line for EU orders.
6. For the US, get your carrier's clearance fees and the current duty for each HTS code, and redo the landed cost per parcel.
7. Put three dates in the calendar: 20 January 2027 (US postal formal entry), 1 July 2027 (US statute) and 1 December 2027 (EU decision on the €3 duty).

I would start with step 2. It needs only your order export and an hour.

Your calculation

For the EU, per parcel up to €150, leaving VAT aside:

1. Charges = distinct items in the parcel × €5.
2. As a share of the order = charges ÷ goods value × 100.
3. Per year = average distinct items per EU parcel × €5 × EU parcels per year.

For the US, per parcel:

1. Duty = value as declared by your broker × the duty rate for the HTS code, plus any additional duties in force.
2. Add your carrier's clearance fee.
3. Add $25 per FedEx parcel if you still send paper trade documents after 18 January 2027 (as reported).

Which of your bundles would you redesign first, once you see it at €25 a parcel?

This guide explains the rules as published on 28 October 2026. It is not legal, customs or tax advice, so confirm your own position with a customs broker before you change your prices.