The EU rewrote its customs code. The date that hits sellers is 1 November.
What just happened
On 19 September the EU published Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 in the Official Journal — a full rewrite of the Union Customs Code, the first since 2013. It entered into force the next day, though most of it only starts applying from 21 September 2027, when a new EU Customs Authority in Lille and a single EU Customs Data Hub begin replacing the 27 separate national systems customs brokers deal with today. The law also settles a question that has been argued for years: from that date, a non-EU platform or seller selling directly to an EU consumer is treated as the importer of record, not the buyer.
That is the headline, and it is a year away. It is not the date that changes anything for most sellers this quarter.
The date that actually bites: 1 November
Since 1 July, the EU has charged a flat €3 customs duty on parcels worth up to €150 sent directly to EU consumers from outside the bloc. The old duty-free allowance is gone; VAT has applied from the first euro since 2021 regardless. From 1 November, two more requirements land on the same parcels: a Product Identifier — the seller’s own SKU code plus the manufacturer’s identifier — becomes mandatory on the customs declaration, and a harmonised per-line handling fee, expected to land around €2 but not yet fixed by the Commission, starts being collected alongside it.
This hits one specific fulfilment model: parcels shipped straight from outside the EU to an EU buyer, the pattern behind most dropshipping and overseas-3PL setups. It does not change how stock already sitting in an EU FBA warehouse gets imported — that goes through a full customs declaration already, and always has.
What to check before November
If any part of your EU-bound volume ships direct from outside the bloc, ask whoever files the customs declaration — your carrier, your 3PL, or you — whether they already assign a Merchant Product Identifier per SKU. If the answer is no, that is the thing to fix before 1 November: a missing identifier does not just risk a fine, it is grounds to hold the parcel at the border. A new per-parcel fee is small on its own, but it is one more line eating a thin margin — Selin tracks cost of goods per product, so a fee like this shows up in that product’s profit the moment you log it, not at month end.
Nothing here changes what an FBA seller pays to restock a warehouse. It changes what a direct-to-consumer parcel costs from 1 November, and it is worth five minutes with your fulfilment partner now, while there is still time to fix it.