Ecommerce sector ready to adapt to looming EU import reforms
Europe’s planned reforms for low-value ecommerce imports are unlikely to trigger the sharp disruption seen ...
By Alex Lennane
New parcel fees in several EU countries ahead of the 1 July EU application of €3 customs duty on small consignments are already impacting the air cargo market.
Romania has reportedly adopted legislation introducing a fixed 25 lei logistics tax on parcels with a declared value of less than €150 from outside the EU; and in both Italy and Luxembourg, a €2 handling fee for low-value shipments was introduced last month, a move Italian companies have said would lose the country money.
The Italian government predicted that the fee would raise €122m this year – but, speaking to the FT, Valentina Menin, director-general of industry group Assaeroporti, which represents companies running 32 Italian airports, including Milan’s Malpensa, said: “The measure has had a boomerang effect.
“The entire Italian logistics sector is losing business.”
Italian Customs data revealed that the number of low-value packages arriving was down 36% in the first three weeks of the year, with at least 30 flights to Malpensa diverted to Liege, Amsterdam, and Budapest, from where they can be trucked freely to Italy.
Capacity analyst Rotate told The Loadstar: “For Italy, we do see a pretty big freighter capacity decrease (-9% YoY or -17% MoM for January’26).”
The news reveals how sensitive ecommerce is to price rises, and will likely create an uneven market until 1 July, when the EU will apply the fixed €3 customs duty on small consignments valued under €150, a temporary measure until a permanent system takes effect.
The council said the €3 duty would be applied to each item in a consignment, according to tariff headings.
Rohlig SUUS Logistics custom product director Mirosław Kłósek said the change was “not merely a technical adjustment”, but would have “a real impact on costs, sales models, and the organisation of logistics in international trade”.
He warned: “In practice, in the case of consignments containing goods with different tariff codes, as well as the same ones, it may be charged multiple times.”
However, he also noted that it would only impact demand for some shipments, not “a slowdown of the entire ecommerce sector”.
He explained: “From the perspective of a logistics operator, we see that higher-value product categories, such as clothing and footwear, will remain relatively resilient to change. These are products for which customers accept a higher price in exchange for quality, brand or availability, and where sellers have greater room for manoeuvre in terms of pricing and logistics policy.
“What will change, however, is the way imports are planned – with greater emphasis placed on shipment consolidation, cost transparency for the end customer, and the selection of an appropriate delivery model, in order to avoid unforeseen charges at the point of delivery.”
Chinese platforms are already building “local-to-local” options in Europe as a result, to expand their EU fulfilment capacity.
Shein has said, for example, that its new facility in Wrocław, Poland, would serve as its primary European logistics hub, enabling faster deliveries across Europe.
Temu and DHL last year signed an MoU under which DHL will support Temu’s Europe operations, including its “local-to-local” initiative, which Temu expects will eventually represent 80% of its sales in Europe.
TikTok Shop is offering “Fulfilled by TikTok” to Asian sellers using warehouse locations in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, enabling inventory to be positioned in Europe for local fulfilment.
These moves align with the basic incentive created by per-parcel (and per-item) charges: bulk-import to EU warehouses, then distribute domestically, rather than shipping each order as a direct parcel from China.
Paul Chapman, senior editor for Transport Intelligence, explained: “These changes are likely to make ecommerce retailers reconsider how they fulfil. Some potential options for them are: to set up regional warehousing inside the EU, and move inventory into EU fulfilment centres (or work with national fulfilment partners); consolidate shipments to reduce per parcel duty; marketplace or intermediary models that handle VAT and customs in bulk.”
This could have an impact on the shape, at least, of China–EU air freight.
Xeneta has been explicit that ecommerce volumes have become central to air cargo demand, and therefore vulnerable to policy shocks.
It said last month: “What happens next will be heavily influenced by ecommerce, with shippers in China, Europe, and elsewhere facing higher delivery costs.”
It also noted that “less buoyant forward-looking signals for ecommerce, particularly Chinese cross-border ecommerce exports, are worrying”.
Last year, China-EU ecommerce volumes continued to grow, “but less briskly”, it said.
The impact of new parcel fees could see direct parcel flights and parcel-heavy uplift from China to the EU reduce as more orders are fulfilled from EU stock.
The changes are likely to prompt a shift from millions of small China-origin parcels, toward regional inventory positioning, in a rebalance of China–EU airfreight demand to more consolidated flows.
Listen to this clip from The Loadstar Podcast of Sinan Ozcan, senior executive officer and director at DP World Trade Finance, explain the impact of volatility on trade finance
Comment on this article