The number of low-value e-commerce parcels entering the European Union surged to 5.8 billion in 2025, marking a 26% increase from the previous year, the European Commission said on Monday, as the bloc moves to curb a flood of cheap imports arriving duty-free.
The rapid growth has been driven largely by online shopping platforms such as Temu and Shein, which ship low-cost goods directly from China to European consumers, taking advantage of the EU’s “de minimis” customs duty exemption for parcels valued below €150.
EU lawmaker Dirk Gotink, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator on the new customs legislation, warned that imports of low-value parcels were rising “at an unsustainable rate.”
“This underlines the urgent need to frontload the European handling fee to July this year and to finalise the customs reform within the next few months,” Gotink said in a statement.
Under current plans, the EU will introduce a €3 handling fee on low-value parcels from July 1 as a temporary measure, ahead of a final agreement to abolish the duty exemption altogether.
The issue has gained urgency following the United States’ decision last year to scrap its own de minimis policy, prompting concerns in Brussels that cheap Chinese goods could be redirected en masse to Europe.
The European Commission has previously estimated that around 65% of small parcels entering the EU are undervalued to evade customs duties. It has also raised concerns over consumer safety due to non-compliant products, as well as the impact on EU industries, particularly retailers, from the surge in imports. The majority of these parcels originate from China.