The Dutch government is the latest European country to propose the introduction of a handling fee for e-commerce packages arriving from outside the European Union.
The proposed charge, ranging from €0.50 to €2 per shipment, would apply to each product valued at under €150 contained within a parcel.
The initiative mirrors similar measures being prepared in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, which aim to introduce their own fees early next year to address rising e-commerce volumes that are straining customs operations.
According to Dutch news service NOS, officials in the Netherlands fear that if these neighbouring countries move ahead with their fees, e-commerce platforms may divert even more shipments through Dutch airports and ports, risking operational bottlenecks.
Although an EU-wide fee is also under discussion, it is not expected to take effect until November—too late, the four countries argue, to prevent growing pressure on their customs systems.
Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN) has expressed support for a uniform EU-level fee but warned that parcel carriers responsible for collecting the charge may not have sufficient time to prepare.
The organisation also cautioned that the Dutch market could see job losses if shipment volumes shift to other European countries as a result of the new national fee.
“We understand that something is needed to better enable customs to handle the enormous growth in e-commerce shipments,” ACN said. “But this has been discussed in a European context and a handling fee at European level is a reasonable proposal to cope with the tsunami of e-commerce.
“The hope is that e-commerce airfreight flows will ‘automatically’ will move to other countries, including Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Hungary, and then return to the Netherlands by truck.
“However, this means that jobs will disappear, consumers will be saddled with extra transport costs and… product safety control will become even more out of sight for the Dutch government. We shouldn’t want that.”