The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and Dutch Member of the European Parliament Dirk Gotink have called on the European Commission (EC) to stop consumers facing unexpected charges tied to the EU’s new €3 ($3.41) customs duty.
The EU brought in the charge earlier this month for low-value e-commerce imports that had previously entered the bloc duty-free.
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Reuters reported that BEUC, which represents consumer organisations from 31 European countries, said consumers should be shown the full price, including duties.
It warned that such charges are sometimes revealed only late in the checkout process or are not displayed at all.
Chinese e-commerce platforms Temu and AliExpress include customs duties at checkout, although AliExpress describes its charge as an estimate.
Shein does not include duties at checkout, but said it pays all applicable duties and that its prices factor this in.
A number of Shein deliveries are shipped from EU warehouses and are therefore not subject to the duty.
The duty is intended to “protect the competitiveness of European businesses by levelling the playing field between e-commerce and traditional retail”.
It also aims to address a rise in e-commerce parcel volumes to 5.8 billion in 2025.
European postal operators, including PostNL and La Poste, have said the end-recipient may receive payment requests before delivery.
In a letter seen by Reuters, Gotink, who oversaw the customs file in the European Parliament, wrote to EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic to oppose the practice and said platforms should be responsible for the payments.
Gotink said: “Consumers should not receive unexpected charges upon delivery or as a pre-condition for delivery.”
BEUC also said that, in some cases, postal operators add substantial administration fees.
The organisation plans to survey consumers in the coming months to obtain a fuller picture of the issue.
An EC spokesperson told the news agency that businesses were legally responsible for customs and that the duties should not be collected from consumers.
The spokesperson added that the EC was monitoring the situation.
Last week, the commission fined online retail marketplace AliExpress €550m over failures to meet risk-assessment duties tied to counterfeit, unsafe and illegal goods under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
In the same week, the EC sent a statement of grounds to Chinese e-commerce group JD.com, marking a formal stage in its “in-depth” foreign subsidies probe into the company’s planned takeover of German retailer Ceconomy.
